What I Learned From The Pizza Shop – By Danny Ives

The other day one of my staff members asked me how I got so good at moping the mats. That I made it like an art form. I started laughing and said thanks for the compliment and went on to tell him that my sick floor cleaning skills I owe to my old job back in the day, which was working at a pizza shop.

That got me thinking about all the life lessons working that job taught me. Not just that but how I took those life skills from the pizza shop right into the martial arts training room.

I thought you know what, this would make a good blog post. What I’m about to write about, working in a pizza shop, relates to martial arts in a big way. Well not just martial arts to be honest, it relates to many different areas of life.

My Pizza Employment Story & How It Helps w/ Martial Arts

I was 17 years old I started working for a small pizza shop called “Originals Pizza”. This was a pizza shop in the northeast section of Philadelphia. I highly recommend their cheesesteaks, very yummy 🙂

Anyway, I took the job because I needed the money (obviously) and the hours were somewhat flexible. The hours were key because I was traveling a lot in order to compete in MMA and BJJ competitions all over the world.

When I first started I was terrable, I freely admit that. How I didn’t get fired must have been an act of god. I was really bad when it came to dealing with angry customers. I didn’t like being belittled and most of time I wanted to slap on a choke hold and give them a dose of what’s what!

Sadly, the modern world tends to frown upon this sort of thing. So, my backup plan was to get good at dealing with angry people in a calm, nice (non-violent) way. It worked out and now I’m viewed as a “people person”.

The Whole Being Lazy Thing…

The other issue I had was being a lazy turd. I was a lazy kid, at least by my standards today. Believe me, the pizza shop beat the lazy right out of me. A lazy worked won’t get far in the restaurant business.

I was working 12 hour days, at least 5 days a week. During these shifts I would be washing dishes, cleaning toilets, moping floors, prepping food and of course, delivering pizzas all around the neighborhood.

One thing I can say for sure is that there’s always something to do in a pizza shop, whether you’re busy or not. It’s not hard to find something to do.

That whole something to do thing reminds me of something the late great Ray Kroc used to say: “If you’re got time to lean, you’ve got time to clean!”. Truer words have never been spoken.

So the work was hard and the hours were long sure. But in the end it was all worth it because I took what I learned from the pizza shop and applied them right into my martial arts training.

The work ethic learned forced me to become more disciplined and that carried over into my martial arts training. I always showed up early for class, worked hard during drilling and live rolling, talked to as many different types of people as I could and I never cut corners.

I believe 100% that had it not been for the pizza shop, I’d have had a hard time accomplishing what I did.

Without that good old fashioned work ethic learned (beaten into me) from those long hours of slaving away at the pizza shop I wouldn’t have know or had what it would take to make it through the beatings I took in the practice room in order to get better and go on to win titles like Pan Am Champion and in MMA Cage Fights.

I look back on those days spent moping floors, getting yelled at and hustling around to get the job done with a certain kind of fondness. By fondness I mean I’m grateful for the life lessons I learned but don’t be fooled, I’m way happier doing what I do now at Ivey League haha.

I think everyone should work hard at a tough job and use that as a way to improve and get better. It’s all about improving yourself. The improvements made during my pizza deliver career have been ever lasting and I’m thankful for that without a doubt.

The main things I learned from working in that pizza shop were:

• Work Ethic
• People Skills
• Fast Acting/Thinking on Your Feet

What Can A Little (Or Lot) Of Hard Work Do For You?

My advice to all the young people out there is to take a job in the restaurant business and be the best you can be at your job. It won’t be long before those same life lessons get beaten into you as they were for me. Be smart, learn from the experience and take what you learned back to the classroom or ring/cage/mats.

As always feedback shall be welcomed. Drop me a comment below this post and I’ll do my darnedest to get back to you.