No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling But Succeeded in Life by Chris Jericho Book Review.

• No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling But Succeeded in Life.
• Chris Jericho.
• 224 pages.
• Nonfiction / Biography / Wrestling.
• My Rating: Hell Yeah Book Review.

Book Blurb:

Bestselling author and six-time WWE champion Chris Jericho shares twenty of his most valuable lessons for achieving your goals and living the life you want, jam-packed with fantastic stories and the classic off-the-wall, laugh-out-loud Jericho references he’s famous for.

No Is a Four-Letter Word distils more than two decades of showbiz wisdom and advice into twenty easy-to-carry chapters. From developing a strong work ethic thanks to WWE chairman Vince McMahon, remembering to always look like a star from Gene Simmons of KISS, adopting a sense of perpetual reinvention from the late David Bowie, making sure to sell himself like his hockey-legend father Ted Irvine taught him, or going the extra mile to meet Keith Richards (with help from Jimmy Fallon), Chris has learned countless lessons during his decades-long career. Now, in the hope that those same principles might help and inspire his legions of fans, Chris has decided to share them while recounting the fantastic and hilarious stories that led to the birth of these rules.

The result is a fun, entertaining, practical and inspiring book from the man with many scarves but only one drive: to be the best. After reading No Is a Four-Letter Word, you’ll discover that you might have what it takes to succeed as well … you just need to get out there and do it. That’s what Jericho would do.

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Book Review.

No Is a Four-Letter Word includes an introduction, epilogue and twenty chapters in-between that share twenty of Jericho’s own life lessons and principles on both how to live the life you want and how to achieve your goals. Featuring various tales, stories and anecdotes from both the world of wrestling and the music industry.

But to say I had dreams of playing rock ‘n’ roll AND being a WWE champion made me look like Donald Trump’s hair in a windstorm…really stupid.

My favourites were. For wrestling, the tale of AJ Styles WWE debut and how Jericho got the Styles clash (one of AJ’s finishing moves) unbanned by WWE owner Vince McMahon. As a wrestling fan, I couldn’t help but laugh when Jericho states that while Vince had banned ‘the Styles Clash‘ and knew the name of the move he didn’t actually know what the move looked like!😂

For music, there’s a tale where Jericho is asked to be part of Lemmy’s (Motorhead) 70th birthday celebrations. It is a pretty cool tale that is made far more poignant by the fact that Lemmy was diagnosed with terminal cancer and sadly, passed away two weeks after his birthday.

Another tale that stands out is to do with Fozzy (Jericho’s band). Fozzy were touring Europe at the time of the devastating terrorist attacks perpetrated by ISIS in Paris during November 2015. While lots of other bands subsequently decided to postpone their tours, Fozzy continued with their own tour playing in Paris exactly a week after the attack on the Bataclan. Fozzy’s backstage assistant for their Paris show was at the Bataclan during the attack the previous week and it’s a moving tale that is full of feeling.

Jericho has a lot of famous friends and he frequently drops their names with a reckless abandon. Whilst reading NIAFLW you’ll need to watch your tootsies with all the name dropping that takes place! But, it never feels like the names are simply ‘there‘ added to the book just to show that Jericho knows all these famous people. No, you really do get a sense and a feeling that they are on the whole all genuine friends of Jericho (who really does come across as a great guy in the book).

With nobody else to hang with, I finished off one of the remaining six drinks on the table and walked out the door, hip-checking that little shit Harry Styles along the way.

Jericho is a very driven guy wanting to be the best that he can be and continually be looking to expand his horizons. Including both successes and failures that he has had along the way, NIAFLW shows how he learnt from his mistakes to obtain his goals. It’s easy to see that Jericho doesn’t just ‘try‘ and with everything that he has achieved he does, in fact, follow his own life lessons from the book constantly striving to ‘learn‘ and ‘do‘ to succeed in his life.

Whether he’s playing a heel or a face (bad guy or good guy) in wrestling Jericho has always had a charisma about him. the ability that when he speaks and cuts a promo, you listen. He has a mesmerising way with words that make you take notice and Jericho manages to channel that same charisma he uses for wrestling promos into his writing style. Giving you a book that is easy to read, draws you in and offers some deep, meaningful and educational lessons on life that are all told with an abundance of his own signature style.

The moral of the story is if some stupid idiot is trying to push you around, don’t be afraid to show some attitude, stand your ground, and rock them like a hurricane.

For readers looking for a book with a positive message and for fans of rock music and/or wrestling this truly is an outstanding read. From the first page through to the last you will be dazzled by Jericho as he leads you through his life lessons with attitude, charm and a wit that is infectious and highly entertaining.

Side note: Since the book was released over two years ago. Jericho has been keeping himself very busy and has done a lot more both with Fozzy and in the wrestling world. Fozzy has continued to tour and release albums. Jericho created the Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager at Sea. He continues to reinvent himself in wrestling, signed with NJPW, had some classic matches and won the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Then, most recently he signed with AEW (All Elite Wrestling) and defeated ‘Hangman‘ Adam Page to become the inaugural AEW World champion. All in all, there are lots of newer exploits for another entertaining book by Jericho should he choose to write one.

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Purchase No Is a Four-Letter Word: How I Failed Spelling But Succeeded in Life:

Amazon UK  /  Amazon US  /  Book Depository

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