Do Hard Things A Podcast With Gabe Lullo Ft. Cris D'Annunzio

"I wasn't making myself an NFL player. I was making myself behave like an NFL player before anybody believed that I could do it." - Cris D'Annunzio Cris spent three years buried on Princeton's depth chart, bitter and barely playing, to the point of calling Joe Paterno to ask about transferring to Penn State. He stayed only because he'd never quit anything in his life. Once the hope of football working out left the room, his ego left with it, and he started writing everything down, tracking every input, with no expectation it would lead anywhere. It led to an honorable mention All-Ivy League season and a shot in the NFL. Then Wall Street, managing over $500 million in client assets. Then thirty years as a working actor (American Gangster, Seinfeld, Animal Kingdom) in an industry that rejects you more than nine times out of ten. Then high-ticket sales, where he still closes every week. His conclusion after all four arena's: talent was never the gap. The gap is whether you keep the process intact when nobody's watching and everything in you wants to negotiate it away. It's the premise behind Metal and Method: you don't know what you actually do every day, you know what you think you do, and your mind lies to you most in moments of duress. "At some point you will actually break. You can't do it yourself. This is why validation is so important."