However, what comes up will come down.
Not everyone will appreciate your success! You're still a human being, not an immortal! You're not immune to health problems. You're not immune from the past traumas of your life!
And most importantly, if you're not careful, you can totally ruin your own success! For too many people, they are their own worst enemy!
I have 3 great examples from 3 recent celebrity deaths. The celebrites I will discuss are Whitney Houston, Don Cornelius and Joe Paterno!
1) Whitney Houston
(August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012)
Whitney Houston passed away last month at the age of 48!
Houston grew up in a family of great singers. Her mom, Cissy Houston, was a gospel singer. Her older cousin Dionne Warwick, was an R&B singer. And her godmother was the Queen of Soul - Aretha Franklin.
While all those women have been successful in their own right, Houston became the biggest international star of them all!
She rose to popularity in the 1980s with a mix of catchy pop songs ("I wanna dance with somebody", "I'm your Baby tonight", "How Would I Know"), slow love songs ("Didn't we almost have it all") and inspirational songs ("The Greatest Love of All" )
She gave what was seen as the most amazing performance of the USA's national anthem "Star Spangled Banner" at the 1991 Super Bowl, just when US troops were out to save Kuwait from Iraqi invasion!
In the early 1990's, Houston wanted to expand her superstar status from not only music, but also to making movies! Thus came films like "The Bodyguard", "Waiting to Exhale", and "Preacher's Wife". And with those movies came a beautiful set of songs from their soundtracks.
The most famous of those songs would be "I Will Always Love You". While it was originally performed by Dolly Parton, and sung by other singers, Houston's version was the most popular one of all!
Houston also sang her version of "I'm Every Woman", originally sung by Chaka Khan.
Houston's other hits included "Heartbreak Hotel" (featuring Kelly Price and Faith Evans), "When You Believe" (featuring Mariah Carey) and my favorite "My Love is Your Love"
Houston's popularity crossed cultural lines.She was an international superstar.
She was an icon that inspired younger singers like Mariah Carey and Christina Aguillera.
Even Rihanna, whose singing style is different from Whitney Houston, used Houston's "My Love is Your Love" as the inspiration for her recent hit "You Da One".
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Yet, even with all this success, Whitney Houston was later more famous for negative things.
First, her marriage with Bobby Brown. This shocked a lot of people back in the early 1990's. Whitney Houston was seen as this innocent princess, the singer of inspirational songs. Meanwhile, Bobby Brown was known as the "bad boy" , the guy who brought the "gangsta edge" to R&B!
Both Brown and Houston did drugs together, with a mix of alcohol, weed and crack. All this took a toll, with Houston having to go to rehab multiple times.
Not only that, they have been both known to physically fight each other. When these allegations first surfaced on the tabloids, people were like "oh no, Brown is attacking our princess". However, their reality show also showed Houston in a bad light, showing us a mean side of her which most likely didn't help!
Even during their visit to Hawaii, there were rumors that Bobby Brown had hit Whitney Houston in the parking lot at Kahala Mall! Rumors later emerged that Brown claimed it was Whitney's sister that he had hit, not Whitney! Either way, not a good sign!
And another visit to Hawaii (this time on the Big Island), Houston was arrested at the airport for marijuana possession. This later led to Rosie O'Donnell dissing Houston by yelling "Aloha" at an award show not long after that incident.
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In 2006, Whitney Houston finally divorced Bobby Brown! But the damage was already done. Houston was already seen by the public as the most famous victim of domestic violence, their reality show showed them in a negative light, and she was addicted to drugs.
Houston attempted to start all over again. However, she needed multiple stints in rehab. Her singing voice was no longer what it once was. She had to cancel tours.
She was working on a comeback album and a film. But it was too late. Houston passed away at age 48!
It will be a while until we know the truth about her death! But it is a sad reminder that even with all her talents, looks, and success, it could all be ruined by drugs and negative relationships.
2) Don Cornelius (September 27, 1936 – February 1, 2012)
About 10 days before Whitney Houston's death, another icon in the music industry passed away. That icon was Don Cornelius.
Don Cornelius was the host of Soul Train, a TV show that showcased soul, funk, R&B, disco, hip-hop and other music forms dominated by African-Americans.
Soul Train was started in 1970.
It was a rough time in the African-American community. Sure, the civil rights that Dr. Martin Luther King was fighting for finally became federal law. However, Dr King was assassinated in 1968.
Many African-Americans still felt oppressed by the police and discriminated by the larger society. This led to riots in multiple cities as well as movements like the Black Panthers, who felt Dr King was "too soft".
Even with all this drama going on, Soul Train was about celebrating life. And Soul Train gave many African-American musicians exposure to a national audience. It wasn't just popular among African-Americans, it was also popular among many other Americans too!
That was revolutionary! It made it cool to be an African-American, and made other kids wish they were African-American too! We now take it for granted, but remember, this started a decade after the civil rights movement. Many African-Americans still had fresh memories of not being wanted in many stores, parks and swimming pools. And now, they're seeing their stars being considered "cool" by other racial groups.
However, with all the success that came with a revolutionary TV show, Cornelius couldn't handle everything right. He was arrested for spousal abuse in 2008.
And on February 1, 2012, Cornelius took his own life, shooting himself in the head.
Rumors surround his suicide, but it is still officially unknown what led up to it.
3) Joe Paterno
(December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012)
Joe Paterno was long-time head football coach at Penn State University! He was in that position for 46 years.
Most coaches don't even last 5 years at a university these days. College and pro sports is all about "what have you done for me lately?" If you haven't had enough winning done lately, you're gone from the job!
So, 46 years as a head coach is almost an eternity!
Joe Paterno started as an assistant coach at Penn State in 1950. He was working under Rip Engle. Back then, Penn State was just a rural college in an isolated part of Pennsylvania. It was far from the big cities of Philadelphia or Pittsburgh! But with Engle and Paterno running things, Penn State became a football power. And football fame trickled down to the university itself, which received way more inquiries from potential students than before.
Engle retired in 1966, and Paterno became the head coach! From that time, Penn State became on the biggest brands in college sports. Paterno broke the record for the most wins by a college football coach.
He was also the biggest fundraiser for his university! He helped the university raise funds for not only athletic facilities, but also libraries as well.
He was seen as a God. He made the university famous! He was their legend.
However, things were going wrong! As years passed by, Paterno was seen as "out of touch". He was mocked for being out of touch with modern technology. People wondered if he still could relate to the modern college athletes.
But even worse, he was accussed of being too lenient on his athletes. Some of them got into trouble with the law, but Paterno dismissed such allegations as a witch hunt.
When a player was accussed of sexual assault, Paterno was accussed of not taking the issue seriously.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/10766548/
Paterno replied by talking about past suspensions of Penn State players. He then added: “There’s some tough — there’s so many people gravitating to these kids. He may not have even known what he was getting into, Nicholson. They knock on the door; somebody may knock on the door; a cute girl knocks on the door. What do you do?”
“Geez. I hope — thank God they don’t knock on my door because I’d refer them to a couple of other rooms,” Paterno continued. “But that’s too bad. You hate to see that. I really do. You like to see a kid end up his football career. He’s a heck of a football player, by the way; he’s a really good football player. And it’s just too bad.”
That was just a sign of even more bad things to come.
One of Paterno's assistant coaches, Jerry Sandusky was caught sexually assaulting young boys in the shower room. It was witnessed by another assistant Mike McQueary, who told Joe Paterno! Paterno mentioned the issue to the Athletic Director.
But NOBODY told the police about that incident.
Sandusky pretty much got away with his actions until 2011, when the police learned about another incident involving similar crimes.
That neither Paterno nor the other university officials reported the incident to the police, they were seen as "protecting Sandusky instead of his victims". So Paterno and other university officials got fired!
So after all those decades of success, all the people viewing Paterno as a "god", it all came crumbling down!
Only a few months after Paterno got fired, he passed away. While the death was due to lung cancer, many people said it was "heart break" that killed Paterno!
Paterno's downfall is a message to all that no matter how popular you are, how much seniority you have, you are still NOT immune from being held accountable!
Paterno's downfall should also be a HUGE WARNING to anyone who says stuff like "no tattle-telling" or "no snitching".
All such messages, usually taught to children, stays in their heads as they become adults.
This is very dangerous!
It is why many people don't go to the police to report rapists, spouse abusers and even killers!
And it is why Joe Paterno did not go to the police to talk about what heard about his assistant coaches doing.
It ended up getting him fired!
The message to us all : When we see or experience something wrong, we need to START telling and we need to START snitching!
Other people's lives depend on it!
