Russell Wilson, Seahawks show right way to realize success

Taken from Monday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

I want to talk about three people who’ve chosen different ways of realizing their success.

Number one, is Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson who on Sunday showed himself to be a real class act talking about how it is he decided to get into football, how he achieved all he has despite the fact that he’s 5’11.”

“For me, I wanted to go against the odds and God used me to do that and it’s just a tremendous blessing,” said Wilson.

He seems to find every way possible to reaffirm his faith in God. It’s interesting too because earlier this weekend I saw a couple of different tweets from very prominent atheists saying religion doesn’t inspire anything but negativity, that the world would be a better place without religious influence. Yet here you have yet another example – and there are countless examples of it – of faith being a rock upon which people can launch themselves to do great things.

You don’t get the impression from Russell Wilson that he thinks the source of his greatness is himself. He thinks the source of his greatness is what God has given him, and he wants to see how far he can push that, how far he can be that steward of those gifts.

“First of all, God is so good. He brought me here a mighty long way,” said Wilson after the Super Bowl win.

He’s reaffirming this faith in God, this feeling that faith makes him strong. There are numerous Seahawks this season talking about the power of their faith and what it does for them.

I was comparing that in my mind over the weekend to the passing of Philip Seymour Hoffman.

He’s 46, relatively young. His career has never been brighter. He’s basically recognized as something that could be likened to a younger, male Meryl Streep. The guy was a brilliant actor and he seemed to have it all. He had people clamoring for him to take part in the top Blockbuster movies. He’s got three lovely kids. He wasn’t married but apparently he had a lovely partner in life, but after being sober for 20-some odd years, he fell off the wagon and got back into what appears to be heroin.

I was thinking it’s quite sad because the brain works these little roadways. You develop habits for yourself whether they’re good habits or sinful habits, self-destructive habits or self-building habits.

These addictions become freeways, and when you finally close them off it’s really difficult. All you’re doing is putting up a little barrier and when you break through that barrier again, that old pathway is still there and the old pathway is as wide and as open as ever.

He’s got a great career, money, kids, and yet he fills this void in his soul with escape and with drugs.

You see something similar going on right now with Justin Bieber, where he’s a young kid who’s been unbelievably successful. He’s worth hundreds of millions of dollars and he’s wasting it and he’s on the path to self destruction. Again, trying to fill whatever it is that is empty within him in the same way.

Whereas, you have someone like Russell Wilson who seems to recognize that it doesn’t matter how hard you work at trying to fill that sense of emptiness with other kinds of things, whether it’s sexual pleasure, whether it’s financial avarice, whether it’s cars, whatever it is, you’re not going to be able to fill that up. There’s something calling you.

It seems like Wilson and a number of the Seahawks have gotten it right. Others make other choices and how fast it leads them to destruction depends on what it is, but they always keep that emptiness.

Taken from Monday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

JS

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