Winning is Not Enough by Sir Jackie Stewart

by Jackie Stewart

Paperback

Reviews

[Steph LaPlante · Rating 5 out of 5]

"..so often people allow themselves to be defeated by situations not so much because the situations are impossible as because they believe the situations are impossible."

Winning Is Not Enough by Sir Jackie Stewart was an incredible read. I assumed I was going to enjoy it because Sir Jackie Stewart is an incredible human being, however, I loved this autobiography, it captured me from the start.

Sir Jackie tells the story of his life from 1939 to 2007, beginning by telling the reader he believed he was stupid for a large portion of his childhood because he had undiagnosed dyslexia, even at a young age he tried hard and wanted to succeed.

The novel describes his competitive shooting days, his competitive racing days, owning his own F1 team, his families health struggles and successes, and the many incredible humans he was surrounded with in this lifetime.

There were some very sad passages including him discussing that in his 11 year racing career he experienced 57 close friends and colleagues passing away. F1 is able to say it is a safe sport today with many thanks towards this man and his constant push for racer safety.

I also loved that at the time of this novel coming out Sir Lewis Hamilton had won one championship and Sir Jackie Stewart predicted that he would go on to win more...which he did, 7 more (yes I said 7, 8 in total).

I highly recommend this novel to any racing enthusiast or anyone who already knows about Sir Jackie Stewart. His outlook on life is inspiring and motivating. He is a gem of a human being.

[Liiz_cita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Túto knihu som čítala pomaly. Nie preto, že by sa zle čítala, ale preto, že som mala pocit, akoby som sa dotýkala niečoho veľmi osobného. Jackie Stewart tu pre mňa nebol len legenda Formuly 1, ale človek, ktorý si celý život niesol pochybnosti – o sebe, o svojej hlave, o tom, či naozaj patrí tam, kde skončil.

Najviac ma zasiahla kapitola „Som sprostý?“, v ktorej otvorene hovorí o živote s dyslexiou. Nepôsobí to ako sťažovanie sa ani ako snaha vyvolať ľútosť. Skôr ako tiché priznanie niekoho, kto sa musel naučiť fungovať vo svete, ktorý mu veci od začiatku neuľahčoval. Čítala som to s pocitom, že všetko, čo dokázal, vyrástlo práve z týchto vnútorných bojov.

Keď sa príbeh presunie priamo do sveta pretekov, zrazu cítiť, aká temná bola táto éra. Formula 1 tu nie je krásna ani romantická – je tvrdá, nebezpečná a neúprosná. Smrť kolegov bola takmer bežnou súčasťou sezóny a každé preteky mohli byť tie posledné. O to silnejšie na mňa pôsobil Stewartov boj za bezpečnosť, za ktorý zaplatil konfliktmi aj stratou rešpektu u niektorých ľudí.

Práve týmto častiam by som dopriala viac priestoru. Tituly a víťazstvá sú dôležité, ale ja som chcela ešte viac cítiť napätie, strach a cenu, ktorú za ne zaplatil. V druhej polovici sa kniha viac sústreďuje na život po kariére a osobné vzťahy, čo je zaujímavé, no moje myšlienky sa neustále vracali späť na okruhy.

Napriek tomu ide o silnú a veľmi ľudskú autobiografiu. O mužovi, ktorý prežil jednu z najtemnejších kapitol Formuly 1, pomohol ju zmeniť a ani neskôr neprestal bojovať – tentoraz už mimo trate. Nezavrela som knihu s pocitom dokonalosti, ale s rešpektom. A ten je pri takýchto príbehoch možno najdôležitejší.