Football fans across the nation are getting ready for the NFL draft that starts tonight, waiting as their favorite teams bring in fresh talent.

While most of the attention will be on the teams and their new players, the NFL draft offers lessons for organizations of all stripes. Great teams in the NFL, like the Green Bay Packers, the New England Patriots, and the Pittsburgh Steelers, are in the playoff hunt almost every season. These teams build in the draft, choosing the right pieces for their organizations by doing their homework and finding players who will help them flourish.

For the best, they don’t just look at statistics and game film. They look for players who “fit” their culture.

“Why not you?”

These simple words were spoken to Russell Wilson by his father, Harrison, and they would change his life.

Years before his Super Bowl championship with the Seattle Seahawks, Wilson was a high-school senior and multi-sport athlete, torn between a baseball career and football dreams. The Baltimore Orioles had drafted him straight out of high school with a guarantee of a million dollar contract. Deep down, however, Wilson desired to play professional football one day, but there was one issue that every coach and scout had raised: At a little under six feet, he was undersized. It was the same old song he had heard since playing youth football.