“You can only rely on yourself.” Review of the book “Saleta”

One of the most recognizable Polish boxers and kickboxers, European heavyweight champion, an athlete who went from a professional ring to the role of a media personality, an activist with a heart for transplantology and a healthy lifestyle has a book published.

Interview with Przemysław Saleta

“Saleta. Przemysław Saleta in conversation with Aldona Sosnowska-Szczuka”, whose premiere is scheduled for October 15, is an interview about life, sports, fight, motivation, which also includes previously undisclosed facts from the author’s life.

In the book, divided into twelve “rounds” – chapters, according to the rhythm of a boxing fight, he reveals his methods of achieving set goals and coping with adversities. It talks about childhood, parents and relationships with daughters. It shows the ups and downs of a boxer’s life. He does not hesitate to talk about money, failures and moments when he felt cheated. A separate “Voice from the Corner” is devoted to the boxer’s father, Jan Saleta, an extremely important figure in the life of the hero of this conversation, this story.

“Saleta” is not a typical biography of an athlete or a champion, but rather a conversation with a man who has taken control of life, controls it and lives according to his own script, according to his own rules. How did he manage to do it? I will not reveal the big secret, revealing right away that it is systematic work and consistent completion of subsequent steps. Not only in your sports career, but also in life.

Warrior philosophy

This book is a dialogue about life, about what remains when the noise in the ring dies down. Each “round” is a different stage of the journey, different life choices and lessons to be learned from them. From giving up studies – despite such talents! – for kickboxing, to crossing new boundaries, also in extreme sports, to fighting serious health problems (complications after COVID-19, including stroke) and relationships with his daughters. In the foreground is always sport, the only constant in this chaotic world and the medicine that allows you to take matters into your own hands again after each failure.

Saleta also unobtrusively shares her rules and thoughts with us. “You can only rely on yourself.” This is not a slogan from a pseudo-guide, but rather the conclusion of a man who has lost his footing many times. “You can’t cheat a ring,” says Saleta, and the reader knows that this sentence applies to everything: relationships, decisions, emotions.

Is this a book for everyone?

Yes, but not for everyone. This is not a book only for martial arts fans. This is a read for those who have ever had to get up after a fall. Why not for everyone? Because it’s easier to read about iron discipline than to get up at 5 a.m. to train. Saleta does not serve the reader with celebrity gossip, nor does it provide easy answers. The interlocutor also contributed a lot to this. Aldona Sosnowska-Szczuka is able to extract not anecdotes from Saleta, but meaning, thanks to which the book resembles a diary or a casual conversation at the table, rather than a typical biography.

His story is more of a motivation to act. A reader looking for inspiring quotes will find many of them here (“I can’t imagine a happy life without dreams and passions”), but don’t treat it as an American guide like “think positively and money and fame will fall from the sky in 6 seconds.” The interview with Saleta is a brutally honest story about how success is the result of work, often murderous, that mental resilience is built over years and that even champions have their weaknesses. What distinguishes them from average people is that they overcome these weaknesses.