Extreme You audiobook

To oversimplify, this is a how to succeed guide. It'll help you advance your career or find courage to start over. The most valuable thing for me are the success stories from ordinary people who created their own niches and did extraordinary things. Everyone has something that they are (what I call) creepy passionate about. Or maybe there's an area you're an expert in. Or maybe you are the person with the big ideas. What Sarah Robb O'Hagen does is show you how to harness that and become an extreme version of you. This book is basically the best pep talk ever. Recommended.

An interesting mix of biography, how to and pep rally. Nothing necessarily groundbreaking here, but she does a good job of showing how you need to keep examining yourself, challenging yourself and keep learning. I also liked the emphasis on humility and that she recognizes that a lot of the skill in becoming better is knowing when to push and when to back off. Also the importance of building a team around yourself that can cover your weaknesses and help add different perspectives. Her positive attitude is very refreshing. Many little gems throughout the book. A worthwhile read. The examples from her life and from other "Extremer's" were very well done and help the flow of the book. She also kept the whole thing under 300 pages which now days is like a small miracle. Now I need to check out her website.She also highlights the power of having good support from spouse, and the power of working very, very hard.

O’Hagan’s recipe for career success manages to be arrestingly original in the overcrowded space of career self-help. The recipe: learn where you shine best, get your best at it, and find a specialized audience that needs it and can afford it.Her method for achieving the recipe is to take initiative respectfully: first listen to understand your colleagues and the organization, then work to gain your colleagues’ respect on their terms, and then take initiative in a way that is in line with moving forward the organization. My main criticism of the book is that O’Hagan fails to acknowledge that many factors are in play within our careers, and not everything is within our control—and often there is more that is not. But I guess there is no point in dwelling on that! :) Also I could have done without the cheesy terminology; please, no more Extreme Self and Extreme Career and Get Out of Line.

Exceptional pep-talk in a book! Looking forward to my AMA Edgewise podcast interview with the author, as I've been a fan since 2012 Fast Company Innovation Unplugged NYC Conference. Great stories, insights, and strategies. Highly recommended.

I appreciate this book for O'Hagan's story itself as a source of inspiration, and I also found some particular points helpful:• I am a big proponent of doing "random walks", both literally and figuratively. O'Hagan talks about it, saying “Checking Yourself Out is a random walk you need to take now and then, even though you don’t know—in fact, exactly because you don’t know—where you’re going” (p. 15).• As you look at your job and associated aspirations, consider: “I was hearing the conventional approach to career building: do something once get a little experience, trim yourself down, do that thing some more, repeat, repeat, retire. It was like a one-way ticket to an average, hellaciously predictable life” (p. 59). She goes on to talk about the value to "getting out of line".• I found her delineation of power versus status relevant. “Power involves exercising control or authority over others; status is being respected and admired. The key difference is that power can be taken by force… Status, though, has to be earned” (p. 133).• No matter how high up you rank or how much experience you have, there is still a need for humility. “Humility is not just a style of leadership, it actually predicts success. Professors at the University of Washington Foster School of Business conducted a series of studies evaluating the effects of humility on professional performance. They defined humility as having an accurate view of yourself and a desire for honest feedback, being teachable, and being willing to showcase other people’s strengths. Another study, by Professor Brad Owens at the Marriott School of Management and colleagues, reported in Organization Science, assessed the humility of students and employees, then tracked their performance on both individual and team efforts. Humility was the strongest predictor of high performance, even more than intelligence and conscientiousness” (p. 136-137).• I am sometimes guilty of falling victim to the "noise of opportunity" where “You have a small success in one area, and that makes people say, 'You should go after this other thing…' Pretty soon you’re doing too much. You’ve lost focus by trying to appeal to everyone, and you’ve lost your way” (p. 172).• She recaps Adam Grant’s helpful "8Ways to Say No Without Hurting Your Image’… 1. The Deferral: Offer to help at a later date, which will filter out the people who are too lazy or disinterested to follow up.2. The Referral” When you can’t (or don’t feel qualified) to do something, share resources that may help instead.3. The Introduction: Offer to put people in touch with someone who can help them better than you can.4. The Bridge: Facilitate connections between people who can help each other.5. The Triage: Employ someone else to act as an initial filter.6. The Batch: Find ways to efficiently combine requests in a way that makes it possible to help several people at one time.7. The Relational Account: Reference your commitment to other people when rejecting someone’s request, e.g. ‘With more than two dozen speaking invitations rolling in per week, my wife and I have set a limit for speaking engagements, and at this point I’m maxed out’.8. The Learning Opportunity: Just be honest: ‘I’m sorry to disappoint. One of my goals for this year is to improve my ability to say no—you are a tough audience. I suppose it’s good practice’ " (p. 174).• I hadn't heard of the phrase "first follower" per se, but it's importance makes a lot of sense. “No matter whether you are in the leader role or the follower, be the one who pursues the vision. If you aren’t the leader—and much of the time, you won’t be—then there is always an opportunity to be what Derek Sivers has called a ‘first follower,’ the one who steps up for a visionary leader with the courage to take practical steps… Every great story of leadership starts with one follower and then blossoms into a small group and then a movement. Your early followers are easy to spot—grab them and support and champion them because their passion will be infectious” (p. 230).

Great book, encouraging and inspiring to follow your dreams, to be extreme version of yourself, taking risks and staying strong.People, who accept their weaknesses, admit their mistakes and take the responsibility of any kind of failure on themselves, are much more successful than those, who are finding all sort of justification, excuses or blame the luck (even partially). Take 100% responsibility on what happened and learn from this experience through the pain.About having so many various fields of interests, and focusing on one narrow unique combination of them for the dream and industry, providing the best service for like-minded people only, and with the highest quality (because you focus and you love what you are doing), and it starts from small circle of people who are truly into your dream, growing little by little. To stay firm and to say "No" to extending the narrow focus to cover more people, becoming "universal", even if it means losing opportunities.Keep growing, everybody, *Hugs*

This was a fairly easy-going read which I enjoyed, and wanted to finish (which isn’t always the case with these sorts of books). The author had lots of interesting and inspiring stories from both her own life and many others, some recognisable, some new to me, and I took great things from many of them. There’s a step process outline for how to be your extreme self which I liked, the idea that there’s a path to follow. It gave me great confidence to realise that failing, or not knowing how to do something, can actually be turned into a positive if you use it in the right way. I had quite a few ‘a-ha!’ moments, and a new idea for a way forward on something that’s troubled me for ages. Thanks for that Sarah 🙂

The two best things about this book are the writing style and delivery, and the system itself that SRO has cleverly and clearly put together to help people unleash and hone their unique mix of skills, personality and experiences in order to succeed in a big, Extreme way in their life. A great read for those who want to stop feeling scared or doubtful, and who want to be able to take the risks that their heart and gut tell them to.

Absolutely perfect timing! I LOVE this book. Here's some motivation:"So be willing to Break Yourself again - and though it will hurt at first, trust the process and look for the change to enjoy the discoveries along the way. One thing that unites Extremers is their relentless curiosity. They're always looking for new things to figure out. They keep asking: Where's the next area I want to explore?"HELL YES!

Awesome book for a make-over! She shared her turbulent past mistakes that made her what she is today! Fearless, Bold, Never say Die! Bad-Ass!!!1. Check Yourself Out - Reimagine Yourself2. Ignite your Magic Drive - the mountain has to really matter to you3. Get Out of Line - play to Win Big4. Get Over Yourself - blindspot for Extreme weakness5. Pain Training6. Stay Stubbornly Humble7. Play your Specialist Game8.Change the Game9. Calling All Extremers10. Break Yourself to Make Yourself

Encouraging and Thought ProvokingThis was a great read. While it had several common elements from other personal development books it had some great new ideas. “Checking yourself out” and “Breaking yourself down” are both great ways to continue to learn and push yourself to new levels. Learning about the failures and struggles of all those included in this book provided some encouragement for myself and someone that is still early in my career.

Relatable and real. Author was great at making her stories approachable and being really open and honest about her strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes. But then she gives great examples and tasks to act upon to build your own skills and endurance.

This was a fun, fast read -- kind of like a Flywheel class. I thoroughly enjoyed it and Sarah's voice - she is a force but seems quite down to earth and approachable with all her business/marketing savvy.

It's amazballs. I loved it.