If there were a battle for which financial advisory team is consistently outperforming the competition, it’s arguably the Holborn Spartans unit of Sagicor Life Jamaica.

On Sunday, April 10, the winningest branch of Sagicor Life Insurance had a low-key affair at the Grand Hotel Excelsior, Port Royal. At the Holborn Spartans 2022 Branch Awards, guests were taken to “The Hamptons on the pier,” as event emcee Debbie Bissoon quipped.

The movie 300 would have many believe that Spartan life centred on military service and fighting to the death. Not so. The foundation of Spartan culture was a system called Agoge, which emphasised “duty, discipline and endurance”. It was a culture of mental stoicism that interrogated the Dionysian lifestyle for which ancient Greece was known.

During the abyss that was the first few months of the pandemic, the Holborn Spartans employed self-restraint and took duty, discipline and endurance to heart.

Speaking with the Jamaica Observer, Holborn Spartans Senior Branch Manager Chris Lawe said, “I have to thank Team Spartan who powered through having their lives paused for almost two years. But we stayed together as a family, as a team, to continue being one of the winningest branches even in such a rough period.”

Sunday’s celebration proved that people with conquering spirits, not frills, make for a fantastic party.