Hello, I'm Kirstie Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Disks from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.uk.

Radio 4. My castaway this week is the businesswoman Carolyn McCall. She's currently chief executive of Easyjet,

one of only three women in Britain in charge of a Futsi 100 company.

Prior to that, she ran the Guardian Media Group.

An only child she was brought up in Bangalore and Singapore.

She spent a short time as a teacher in a

comprehensive school and has also brought her wisdom to the boardroom table at

Lloyds Bank, Tesco and New Luke. In amongst all of this corporate strategising she somehow also managed to have three children in three years.

She says, I think it's mad not to have self-doubt, but I think it's really dangerous when that self-doubt becomes total insecurity or lack of

confidence or lack of momentum or lack of belief in yourself.

So Carolyn McCall that self-belief.

60 million passengers a year you've got a company that's valued around about 4 billion.

When are the moments that you most need to rally the self-belief, do you think?

Well I think when I left the very safe and secure environment of the

Guardian media group, you know I knew I was taking quite a big risk, it was a calculated risk.

I had to talk long and hard with my husband, but I did just constantly feel it was worth it.

It's a very dynamic industry. It's a very exciting but also very stretching business you know that you're dealing with people's holidays you know

if something goes wrong it's something people have been looking forward to for

months we've had them beA just announced this no frills service, you know, you pay less if you just have hand baggage and there's Ryanier, there's Monarch, there's Thomas Cook.

It's a highly competitive industry.

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