“Just because something is scary isn’t a reason not to do it,” Gunn argues in Your Career is an Extreme Sport. Using metaphors from extreme sports—climbing, surfing, kayaking, to name a few—Gunn outlines personal career success where individuals “reach” for new challenges and work as part of a kinetic team.

Gunn created a simple model with three concentric circles: the interior circle is the comfort zone; the middle is the reach zone and the outer is the kamikaze zone. The interior circle is for individuals who do not care to take risks. This is not who the book is written for. The outer, or kamikaze circle, is for the reckless who don’t always measure risk adequately and who can sometimes fail spectacularly and with lasting consequences. The middle zone, the reach zone, is the ideal zone: you have pushed yourself far enough and are able to take the next scary step without falling. Try hard within a reachable, reasonable limit, Gunn suggests to career explorers.

Your Career is an Extreme Sport is based on interviews with several people who have a “corporate” career plus an extreme sport hobby motivator or lifestyle and in almost all of the interviews, the person knows their “reach” but have sometimes exceeded it because of their mentors or team mates. For example, Chris Flint, an adventure racer who is also a vice president at Securities Omaha, describes how he consults with his colleagues before making a change in the sales organization at his company. From her interview with Robyn Benincasa, Gunn identifies this collaborative style of leadership as “kinetic leadership” where, based on knowledge and strength, one team member becomes the temporary leader. Like a team moving from offense to defense depending on the play of the court or field, a good corporate team can use the skills of each member to delegate or deliver as necessary.

Punctuated by checklists and self-exploration exercises, Your Career is an Extreme Sport will interest people engaged in a career in sport or tourism, or readers who want to expand their reach zones and take a chance on something scary, but within reach.