Queenstown-based Dr Hazledine is the founder of MedRecruit, a business which specialises in working with doctors to place them in locum and permanent positions so they can enjoy both their career and lifestyle.
Among various accolades, Dr Hazledine was Ernst and Young Young Entrepreneur of the Year in 2012.
Last year, he was named one of six new Blake Leaders at the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards.
What was important was knowing what you stood for and your values, and living up to them, he said.
''I honestly don't care what people think,'' he said.
Dr Hazledine grew up living in various parts of the world, as his father worked for Shell.
His parents instilled in him a belief that anything was possible.
He studied medicine in Otago and candidly acknowledged that, at that time, he was drinking heavily and getting himself ''in a lot of trouble''.
His life changed radically on June 20, 2002, when he decided to do a backflip off a wall outside the Captain Cook Tavern.
He landed on his head and was in a coma for several days.
When he came out of the coma, he was told he might not regain his full brain function, or be able to return to medicine.
It was to prove to be the ''shake-up'' he needed and, with determination and focus, he got back on track, realising that he had to change.
He went on to graduate with his medical degree in 2003 and, that same year, he was also New Zealand extreme ski champion and overall freeski champion.
When Dr Hazledine started working as a doctor, he saw that 25% of medical graduates left medicine within three years of graduating.
Deciding that medicine had not changed to cater for a younger generation of doctors, who wanted more flexibility and freedom, he set up MedRecruit in October 2006.
The business grew quickly and was named fastest growing services business and second-fastest growing business overall in the Deloitte Fast 50 awards in 2009.
It now employed more than 40 staff and had offices in both New Zealand and Australia.
The business was set to expand quite considerably over the next few years, he said.
Dr Hazledine had spent a lot of time in the United States and also Australia and found there was a ''transition'' going from the US to Australia to New Zealand.
Americans celebrated success - ''they applaud people doing well'' - while Australia was ''kind of in the middle''.
When it came to New Zealand, it was almost like there was a mentality of ''if someone does well, that means it's taking away from how well I can do'', he said.
While New Zealanders loved success in sport, they did not seem to celebrate success to the same extent in business or finance.
But it was much easier to be successful in business in New Zealand than in Australia or the US, he believed.
''If you're hungry in New Zealand and go after it, you've got a very, very good chance of being really successful,'' he said.
The notion of the Tall Poppy Syndrome could be used to your advantage ''if you don't really care about it''.
''People who do really, really well, I don't think they care about it,'' he said.
In Queenstown, there was a subset of people who ''get up and make things happen'' and it was a very empowering and inspiring environment in which to be a business person, he said.
To become successful, Dr Hazledine believed you also had to ''give a lot more than you get'' and, in his experience, successful people did not ''give to get''.
''It's a formula for life; the more you give, the more you receive. Of the people I know who are really successful, they are all really generous. They all support causes they believe in.''
