The Gladiators of Calcio Storico are men with a deep story of redemption, love, and fear. They are astoundingly human on and off the field. It’s easy to see the brutality in this sport, but when one looks beyond it to what drives these men to play Calico they see every range of the human emotion, the human spirit, and more importantly, the determination to see their decisions through to the end for their team.

Calcio Storico from Narratively on Vimeo.

I want my company to be like that.

You can see the compassion in their faces, the determination to be the strongest they can be for their team. They are willing to go to severe lengths to do the very best they can do in hopes that they are better than the other teams.

Now, I have been to the Calcio Storico games twice. They are held in Firenze, or Florence to the English world once a year. The men train all year round for their church sponsored historical game. The preparation is as much mental as it is physical. The “rules” consist of describing the shape of the field, how many people are on the field, the costumes, and the time limit. The teams play on the field for 50 minutes with the intent of scoring as many goals as possible by any means necessary. Well, short of killing each other.

It’s a vibrant game of brutality mixed with compassion fuelled by pride in personal skills and those of your team mates. In less than an hour you see men in odd, colourful Renaissance style pantaloons kicking, punching, and wrestling one another for control of the ball, only to dash the length of the field to throw the ball into their goal. While they throw each other around, they are careful to pay each other respect. You often see players from opposite teams taking care of one another by helping each other off the ground, sharing water, and laughing while embracing one another after a great play.

MODERN GLADIATORS – CALCIO STORICO from David Battistella on Vimeo.

It’s all very, very human.

All of us have a competitive streak, no matter how small. We want to be the best we can be, but we often use others that are slightly better than us as measuring sticks to encourage us to keep pushing up. This is not a bad thing. But it goes beyond that. These gladiators have a lot of qualities that resonate with a lot of people. Here are the traits that these men show that I want to show in my business culture and ethics.

Courage: In the first video the first player talks about fear. Then, he talks about overcoming fear. You know what you go in with, and you know what you stand to lose. It can be a terrifying prospect. They stand to get physically damaged as well as humiliated.

In business you stand to loose your money, reputation, family, friends, and much more. It can be staggering what you can lose if you’re not careful. With courage you can take the steps to work around those giant pitfalls to a better life.

Compassion: These men clearly have compassion for themselves, their team mates, their community, and their family. They show it on and off the field. Compassion, and the human morality, drives them to make certain decisions and hold back the bulk of their brutality. It doesn’t make them weak; it makes them stronger because they don’t severely injure one another. They have the will and means to hold themselves in check because of this compassion.

In business it drives you to make decisions as well. Do you buy your supplies from the small, family owned business where you know the names and faces of each person? Do you put the lower cost of a big box store above the human connection? Do you outsource to a big, nameless place? Do you keep things local and see the full impact of what you’ve accomplished? Do you send your employees a gift on their birthday or do you largely ignore it? Compassion can do a lot without much effort.

Strength: Clearly these men are physically strong. Did you see that guy doing the one-armed pullups? Doubtless honing one’s skills is just the beginning, though. They also have an inner strength that helps them calm their nerves for themselves, their team mates, their community, and for their families. It’s a brotherhood, and they don’t want to let each other down. This takes a lot of inner strength to overcome the doubt and fears.

It’s no different in the world of business. You need a lot of inner strength to be able to overcome your fears, work through the rough patches, and keep going along. It’s for yourself, your community, your team, and not just your family, but your team’s families as well. Training your body and mind can make all the difference in the world.

Fortitude: Their game lasts 50 minutes, but their training lasts a lot longer than that. Can you imagine going into the gym to train knowing that you could get severely hurt? You battle day in and day out of training developing that inner and outer strength. Some days you may not want to do it. It takes fortitude to train every day, fighting through the fog of fear to keep going.

As it is in business, as well. There are days when I think about bills, rent, paying the freelancers for a project completed and worry. There have been days in the past when I’ve felt like giving up and just working for someone else. After all, it’s the sane, relatively rational, and somewhat reliable thing to do. But then I wouldn’t have the ability to show courage, strength, and compassion all my own.

Inspiration can be found everywhere. Embrace it.

As I sip on my morning coffee as I write this, I’m thinking about all the times I’ve taken the easy route. Then, as I pull on my boots to go work another day in the garden centre, I think about all the good I am doing for myself, my family, and my team at Insanitek. I smile ruefully as I think about how my feet will ache at the end of the day and lace them up anyway. I’m just at the beginning of my training, but I’m overcoming fear of failure every day.