Taking The Long View - A Nick Saban Story

In 2017, ESPN aired an interview with Alabama's Head Football Coach, Nick Saban.

At the time, 100% of the players who'd been on his team for a period of 4 years over the past 10 seasons had won a National Championship. Think about that. Every graduating senior for over a decade won a National Championship at Alabama.

A Mindset Shift

10 years prior to that ESPN interview, Nick Saban changed his coaching philosophy. He believes his new perspective was a catalyst for long-term success.

Here's the shift: "I want to win at all costs" to "I want to maximize the potential of every individual player."

Previously, if a junior on Alabama's team wanted to go to the NFL a year early, Saban tried to stop him.

With this new mindset, he decided that if going to the NFL a year early is in the best interest of a player, he'll do everything he can to get them there.

He took a longer view.

The Payoff

Nick Saban discovered that if he built a reputation for getting his players to the NFL, the best high school recruits in the country would all want to play for him. 

He built the program the most talented players wanted to play at by creating the best path to get them to where they wanted to go in the long run. He understood their long-term goals.

Now, instead of retaining a junior for their senior season, he had 10 NFL-caliber players filing in ready to take the place of that NFL-bound player.

The strategy worked.

In 2017, Nick Saban had 65 former Alabama players currently playing in the NFL watching an Alabama game together on his sideline.

The Takeaway

Nick Saban started to recruit high school players, not based on their college potential, but their NFL potential. He took a long view.

The best leaders take similar long views.

They don't see opportunities for what they are now, but what they will be in 10 years. They don't evaluate current ability, but future potential.

Long views require short-term sacrifice. For Saban, that sacrifice was losing starters a year early. 

Long-term health is driven by short-term sacrifices. Healthy food will never taste as good as whatever currently makes up the majority of the average American's diet.

Long-term investments usually have a significant upfront cost. You limit short-term optionality for greater returns down the road.

Friendships. Marriages. Children. All are relationships that benefit from having a long-term perspective and often require short-term sacrifice.

What's my long view? If that's unclear, begin by understanding what type of person it's necessary to become to make achieving any long view possible.

Then make the short-term sacrifices required to cultivate those virtues. 

Let's be people who make long-term decisions based on long-term views.