“Actors are so fortunate. They can choose whether they will appear in tragedy or in comedy, but in real life it is different: our Guildensterns play Hamlet for us, and our Hamlets have to jest like Prince Hal. The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast”. Oscar Wilde, citing Shakespeare, has already said it all. So, do you want to be an actor?
Diego Armando Maradona was a player, not a football player.
Diego Armando Maradona was a kid, a very poor kid indeed, that grew up in a place where there was nothing else to do than give some kicks to a ball. Just a 6-year-old kid that has a football ball as a companion. Imagine that kid becoming the person that, more than anybody else on this planet, can make that ball do whatever he likes. Is that kid still a kid, is that kid still human, or is it an actor? A symbol? An icon?
How many people, in the world, know his name? How many people know who Diego Armando Maradona was? Good, or bad, everybody has an opinion about him. Because everybody stopped, at least once, to give it a thought.
Some months ago, we were on our way to a meeting in suburban Turin, and the Italian radio speaker said “Maradona’s team lost to Cagliari this weekend”. Maradona hasn’t strictly played for Napoli in a while. Maradona is not even alive anymore… And yet, Napoli is being named “Maradona’s team”. Later that same morning, in that very meeting, the CEO we were talking to (an exquisite interview… If you’ll ever read this - thank you Antonio!) used the very same name - Maradona - to express the feeling that in his team “there should be no Maradona”. Aka there should not be a phenomenon, a one-man-show, a catalyzer. He said it in a good way though, highlighting the value of the team itself in disfavor of a hero who can overshadow everything else.
Some people “transcend” themselves. Some people become symbols of something else than flesh and blood…
Why does everybody love (or hate) Diego? Why is Naples colored with his graffiti? Why Paolo Sorrentino (Paolo! If you ever, EVER read this… Thank you, for your delicate and true poetry. Please, do get in touch!) shared a post captioned “One year without God” for his first death anniversary? Maradona was the last (the first?) King of Naples. In a city that’s torn apart between the Volcano and the Sea, between opulence and misery, between past and present, a city that is continuously mocked and scorned by others, by all Italians themselves… When Diego was there, it was the capital of football. The world’s capital of football.
Diego was cocky, a drug-addict, a scoffer of all rules. But what would you have done, if you had become greater than your wildest dreams as a kid, if your most boring days were gargantuanly greater than your most extreme hopes?
What does it take to become an icon? Diego wasn’t flesh and blood anymore, maybe not even to himself. It was Diego Armando Maradona. A trademark. A trademark that stood for freedom, payback, fun. If all the world is a stage, Diego Armando Maradona was the player the drama was tailored on. A leader, a driving force, an entertainer. Somebody that can make you laugh, somebody that can make you cry: in any case, somebody that would drag away all the burdensome weight of your everyday battles.
If all the world is a stage, the one who’s on the stage needs to act for something else's sake: what does your brand stand for?
Mastering the stage: the handy compendium
If you do want to be on stage (and which brand doesn't want it?) you have to carefully choose your part. As William (Shakespeare) taught us, as Oscar (Wilde) warned us, we have nothing but a part to play: therefore it is appropriate to choose it well.
To be(come) an icon, whether you are a brand or a person, you need to emerge as a cultural player. C’est-à-dire, as someone/thing that can speak simultaneously to the plethora of listeners, to all auditors who might dwell in the semantic reference frame.
How do you ascend from person to icon? How do you ascend from brand to cultural player? The path is similar, or better said: the path is all the same.
First of all, you’ll LEAP: you have to start very far from where you’ll end. Then, PEOPLE: you have to do something that makes people smile, that makes them feel better about themselves. Lastly, you’ll have to be EMPOWERING: you need to give people the opportunity to do more, to do better. You need to push them to think big about what they can do and achieve.
When you’ve done this all, you’ll start noticing that you have become an antonym, a common name, a way of saying. You’ll have a recognised impact on people’s lives, you’ll have a story that can be looked up to. You’ll have something true to say: and now, the lights are all on you. Use them wisely. All the world’s a stage: cast your play well.
If you’re Antonio, Paolo, Diego (!) or just curious, drop us a note at
