“There is no correlation. It’s how much you have it in here”
In short: Dan Peña, the mentor known for his blunt style, speaks to a live London Real audience at the Ritz in April 2015 about alpha males and commitment. He argues that a good story or polished delivery says nothing about who will act, and he backs it with stories about a wheelchair trip to Frankfurt and a father who endured surgery without anaesthetic.
Dan opened by telling the room that being picked, or telling a better story than the person next to you, proves nothing about follow-through. In almost 22 years of mentoring, he said, the people who express themselves least well are often hungrier than those who sound the most convincing.
He then gave his definition of commitment through two stories, one about his own injuries and one about his father, and linked both to the idea of being raised among alpha males rather than around people who make excuses.
Key takeaways
- Stories do not predict action. Dan said there is no correlation between a good pitch and what someone goes on to do.
- Commitment means showing up. He turned up to a meeting in Frankfurt in a wheelchair days after a serious buggy crash because he had said he would.
- Keep going through pain. He described having a tooth fixed without novocaine hours before a webinar so his speech would not be affected.
- Standards are learned young. He traced his own attitude to his father, an Army investigator who sat through surgery without going under.
- Surround yourself with alpha males. Dan said growing up among them, rather than among people who make excuses, shaped him.
- Pick the right team. He told the audience to look for a dream team of capable people who are still available to work with.
Why a good story is not enough
Dan told the room that Brian picking someone for the event, or someone having a better story about why they are not more successful, guarantees nothing. He went further: in his experience the people with a slightly weaker story are often more desperate, and desperation counts for more than polish.
He repeated the point several times in the talk: the only thing that matters is how committed you are, and he has seen no link between eloquence and results.
Commitment in a wheelchair
His best-known commitment speech starts in Frankfurt. Dan had promised to introduce Klaus Kleinfeld, then newly in charge of Siemens USA, to some important people. Three days earlier he had been in a near-fatal accident in Cabo San Lucas racing dune buggies with his two sons, which left him with a shattered collarbone, collapsed lungs and internal bleeding.
He arrived in a wheelchair wrapped in a thermal blanket and told Kleinfeld he had said he would be there. A more recent example came when he lost a tooth hours before a webinar to a sales team and had it fixed on the spot without novocaine, so that he could still speak.
An alpha male father
Dan said he learned commitment from his father, who headed the Criminal Investigation Division for the United States Army Europe. When Dan was five or six, his father met the family at Le Havre in France hours after surgery to remove a large tumour from his back, which he had insisted on watching with mirrors rather than being put under.
Dan’s point was about environment: a child who sees that standard at home grows up differently from one raised by parents who were themselves shaped by excuses. He said a mentor who tells you they will hold you to account means it, and he closed by pointing his audience towards the kind of dream team that is still out there.
Who is Dan Peña?
Dan Peña is a mentor who has coached entrepreneurs for around 22 years, according to this 2015 London Real talk at the Ritz. He credits his father, an Army investigator who had served in two wars, for his attitude to commitment, and he describes mentoring teams and sales organisations through speeches and webinars.
Frequently asked questions
Dan Peña says he grew up surrounded by alpha males, starting with his father, and that this gave him a different standard of commitment from people raised among excuses.
He says that in nearly 22 years of mentoring he has found no correlation between telling a good story and acting on it. How much you have inside is what counts.
He attended a meeting with Klaus Kleinfeld of Siemens USA in a wheelchair, days after a near-fatal dune buggy accident in Cabo San Lucas, because he had promised to be there.
He saw his father, head of the Criminal Investigation Division for United States Army Europe, collect the family at Le Havre hours after surgery, which he had watched without being put under.
It was a live talk at the Ritz, recorded in April 2015.
