Lessons From A Legend

Life is full of choices. With intention or not, you choose your friends, your meals, and even your daily attitude. And we’re just scratching the surface on that front. Like many others growing up in south Alabama, football was the centerpiece of life. I never really played any sports growing up myself. I took to music. But again, our music world revolved around the game of football with my dad being a high school band director. We traveled to all the games and I frequently rode in the front seat of one our police escort cars – and sometimes the back. Friday nights consumed us, and Saturdays in the fall typically involved us either watching Bama games or at a marching competition where the cheers and jeers would ebb and flow based on the football scores announced throughout the day. Like I said, football is an inescapable way of life and I’m not mad at it whatsoever.

And then came college. I graduated from the University of Alabama in 2005, finishing a semester early because I knew if I dragged it out much longer I might get impatient and quit altogether. I never really did like school work, especially when it directly interfered with my ability to generate income. We didn’t have the type of Alabama team that the fans became accustomed to during the Coach Bryant era. We weren’t even competing for SEC championships, much less national championships. We were on probation, after all (go to hell, Tennessee). It was somewhat of a revolving door of coaches as we were biding our time to stay relevant while laying the groundwork for when we were back at full strength. And then came Saban.

I had heard all the usual “coach speak” from a myriad of sources over the years. Amongst them all, nothing ever stood out as different. That is, until Nick Saban took over the program. He entered a part of the country with unrealistic expectations that would chew up and spit out anyone that didn’t quite meet expectations. And that’s putting it nicely. It’s important to remember, I know football, but I don’t dare to claim to really know football. I’m just a kid that just graduated and trying to figure out my professional career, if you can even describe my path as such. But what I learned very quickly was that Coach Nick Saban spoke and thought differently than any other coach I’d heard before him. He could explain concepts, strategies and theories with such clarity that even my peanut-sized brain can understand it. It’s also the point I realized how big of an impact the correct leader can have on an organization. The proof in the pudding was almost immediate. After inheriting a roster full of players that he didn’t select for his “process”, we ended up with a 7-6 record, unheard of by today’s standards. After a substantial roster turnover, the guys that met his standard didn’t even lose a game the following regular season. So then, I began to listen closer than ever. Here are a few of my top takeaways that have carried over to my personal and professional life.

“It's not human nature to be great. It's human nature to survive, to be average and do what you have to do to get by. That is normal. Anything above that is extraordinary.”

- CNS

“There are two pains in life. There is the pain of discipline and the pain of disappointment. If you can handle the pain of discipline, then you'll never have to deal with the pain of disappointment.”

- CNS

High Achievers

Coach Saban spoke often about a “true team” from the perspective of their attitude makeup. “High achievers don’t like to be around mediocre achievers and mediocre achievers don’t like to be around high achievers”. It’s so simple yet so profound. It seems to easily account for a majority of reasons why some teams – or in my case, crews – don’t get along. There’s rarely been a time where it fully haults production. Rather, when a mix of these two personality types is apparent it just makes our days longer or more frustrating. When a crew is full of high-achievers, the day goes smoothly, we get the content we need and it looks and sounds as good as it can. When it’s a mix of the two, resentment builds and sour attitudes and unwanted surprises In our industry, high achievers are constantly learning; both in a technical sense as well as good habits and practices. We’ve taken great care to not just hire, but hire right. We need and want high achievers and I’m pretty sure we have the perfect mix of guys and gal.

Second Chances

Leading a team often involves making corrections when someone makes a mistake, or having very uncomfortable conversations. Try as you might, mistakes will happen either personally or professionally. Coach Saban has preached that he believes strongly in second chances. If someone makes a mistake, he doesn’t simply dismiss them from the team like you might expect from a typical disciplinarian. Coach demands a lot from his players, but he does so with a sense of grace. The reasoning behind it is the tale of two paths. If you kick someone to the curb, guess where they end up; the curb. If you give them a second chance, you give them the opportunity to prove themselves again, correct the mistake and move forward and prosper. From this, I’ve learned to be patient with other crew members that might make a mistake. With a little support and communication, they might just turn out as one of the best at their job.

Trust The Process

Ignore the goal, focus on the how. Goals are great, but apparently getting obsessed with them is a bit of a toxic trait. The goals are important and should exist, but the path to get there is focusing on what’s happening now. For me, that translates to putting effort into the current scene or day, or setting up a process or workflow, or routine. Ignore the goals for just a minute and do what it takes to get there.

Do Your Job

Do your job sounds simple, but it can mean so many things. At its core, do your job means to know where you’re supposed to be, when you’re supposed to be there and what you’re responsible for. Feel free to hold others accountable, go the extra mile when you can, but doing your job comes first. After all, "Success doesn't come from pie-in-the-sky thinking. It's the result of consciously doing something each day that will add to your overall excellence."

Leadership

Lessons in leadership come from a multitude of personalities across many different platforms. For Coach Saban, leadership means having difficult conversations and settings examples. Not everyone can be the best player. On a film crew, an individual, or a couple individuals if you’re lucky, will be the leader that a crew needs to stay on task, on schedule and give everything the time and tools needed to do their job. They will be the ones to have difficult conversations if things aren’t going smoothly or if someone needs to be held accountable for their actions, or inactions. And especially within a department, the department head is more than just being the “best mixer” or “best cinematographer”, it means holding your crew accountable to the standards that have been set. "To be a great player, you have to affect other players by making them better. You do that by the example you set, how you encourage them, how you communicate with them.”

Fighting Complacency

Every day is different, even if it doesn’t feel like it. Coach Saban says that expecting to be rewarded for doing something successfully is human nature and to be expected. Often times, that mentality contributes to complacency by making you think you can get the same result with less effort the next time around. “It doesn’t get you until it gets you,” he preaches. Simply by being aware that complacency will creep up on you can give you the mindset to remain at the top of your game with focus and intention.

The lessons I've learned from a guy that I've never met are not lost on me. He's had a positive impact on so many people in so many ways that it's almost impossible to replicate, but it's easy to appreciate. By simply observing a teacher and his students with the kind of enthusiasm that's really sort of silly to most people, I've been able to have a perspective of and appreciation for so many other people that I otherwise might have slipped right by me. And for that, I'm not sad that he's gone, I'm just happy that we had him.