I spent the week in Nashville covering Epicor Insights 2026. Four thousand manufacturers and distributors at the Gaylord Opryland. Keynotes, analyst sessions, the expo floor. Good work.

Then Epicor President Vaibhav Vohra brought Nick Saban on stage, and the room went quiet in a different way.

It’s the weekend now. Here are the three things I can’t put down.

Be nice to people.

Not as a platitude. As a foundation.

Saban traces his entire leadership philosophy to three lessons from working at his father’s service station in West Virginia as an eleven-year-old. The first was compassion. Treat people how you want to be treated. Be nice on the way up, because you will meet those same people on the way down.

He said: It’s nice to be important, but it’s more important to be nice.

Simple. Obvious. And the thing most people drop the moment the pressure is on.

How to win.

His father’s version: If you didn’t have the time to do it right the first time, how are you going to have the time to do it over? Because you will do it over.

Saban’s version: feelings versus choice.

There is something you know you are supposed to do that you really don’t want to do. Can you make yourself do it? There is something you know you are not supposed to do but want to. Can you keep yourself from it?

That is the whole discipline question. Not talent. Not motivation. Just those two decisions, made consistently, every day.

He told a receiver whose goal was to catch 50 passes: that is not a goal, that is an outcome. A goal is running perfect routes. Having reliable hands. Being the best blocker on the field. Outcomes happen or they don’t. The work, you control.

Think about the win. Just not the scoreboard.

In 1998 at Michigan State, four wins and four losses going into Ohio State, the number one team in the country, Saban sat with a psychiatrist and admitted he didn’t believe his team could win.

The psychiatrist told him he had always been too outcome-focused. Make it simple. One play at a time. The scoreboard doesn’t matter until the game is over.

They were down 17–6. They kept playing the next play. They won 28–24.

His winning percentage went from barely above 50 to 90 after that game. Same coach. Same players. Different question being asked: not are we going to win, but what do we have to do on this play.

When you fixate on the outcome, you create anxiety. Anxiety kills performance. Focus on dominating the current moment, and the scoreboard takes care of itself.

Saban talked about the sign at the entrance to the Alabama facility. Not “Win the SEC.” It said: Be a champion. Four behaviors listed underneath. No results. No trophies. Just what you have to do today.

• Be a team. Everyone buys into the principles and standards. No exceptions.
• Be positive in your work. Attitude is contagious. Make sure yours is worth catching.
• Be accountable for your own self-determination. Do your job. Create value for yourself and the team.
• Be invested in dominating the competition. Passion, work ethic, and the ability to turn every obstacle into an opportunity.

That room of 4,000 people who run factories and distribution centers went completely still.

I came to Nashville with a notebook full of questions about agentic AI and cloud migration timelines. Those answers are written up elsewhere.

This is what stayed.

Shashi Bellamkonda writes at readythoughts.com. He is a Principal Research Director at Info-Tech Research Group and Entrepreneur in Residence at Stony Brook University.