How To Become Like Komla Dumor

When the tributes pour in for a dead lion, they will always record that it was fierce. When the donkey is eulogized, it will always record that it was hardworking. And despite its sometimes lazy, drowsy look in the eyes of the lion whiling away time under a tree, it will always be the king of the jungle - not the donkey. So why can�t we all be like to lion, or the donkey? Or the eagle? Why is man so prone to failing as much as succeeding and yet the lion is 100% guaranteed to always be what its supposed to be? Why are you, you? � an average, towel-throwing, weakling? Why are we all not like Komla Dumor � a professional perfectionist peerlessly producing purposefully? It is because unlike every other living thing � a man must decide how he wants to turn out. I didn�t know Komla Dumor and I hear he didn�t know me too. Never took a picture with him or paid attention to him on BBC. But I have sat here at myjoyonline, listening to an orgy of great interviews on his life and I have done stories for Ghanaians to read about his life. In the process of this story-telling, the light of his life shines through me and our readers, exposing the flaws in our character, the poverty of our current stock of virtues and the emptiness of a naked can hit by the reality that it is not fit to adorn the shelves in a supermarket. Simply put � I, like many, do not measure up. And like a kid standing next to his mother in front of a toy shop screaming, 'mummy I want that toy'. I wish I could be like the Boss player in his attitude. George Andah in an interview on the Joy FM Super Morning Show on Tuesday gave a clue to understanding the man Komla Dumor. He is so hardworking he said, "it is probably in his DNA...his sister is like that too", he conjectured. And here is it: Komla was most likely choleric. They have a tendency to overwork themselves, and are prone to burnout. When carrying out various tasks to accomplish goals, they are capable of undertaking any behavior necessary to get it done. Unlike the Melancholy, who is capable of seeing the pitfalls of a project before taking action, Cholerics refuse to see any pitfalls. The Choleric will forge ahead regardless of the cost, the end justifies the means. And they approach only select people for deep relationships. Knowing yourself - your strengths has a way of humbling you because you know you got it without working for it. And you know someone greater than you has been good to you although you have not met him yet. Dumor wrote in a post " this year, God has been so good to me". He is reported to have told Tommy Annan Forson after he bought a Mercedes that he was not going to go to church especially to thank God for his new car because he doesn't not see it more important than thanking God for his life. 'I thank God for everything..for the small things and ordinary things', he said reportedly. I don't know his minor temperament. And of course, this doesn't explain everything about him. It is not so simple or straightforward. But it is an important mould that shaped how he turned out. Here is the thing: We are fearfully and wonderfully made yet tragically flawed. Take the sanguine. He could be so gifted with making people happy, drawing others to bask in the energy of his life. If he is a radio guy, everybody would listen to his show. But his stark moral weakness could mean he could Take the melancolic, blessed with a deep intellect but his lack of courage means trying, daring a venture could take centuries. He could be good at his work but so slow his colleagues less better than him can actually get promoted ahead of him. As you may have realized, Samson�s greatest enemy was always himself. Success is how a man sets his strengths free and puts his weakness behind bars. In the nine months stay in the womb, nature would have dealt and stamped hits own set of weakness � and strengths - within him and shipped him out into the world to try a balancing act. And nuture from his family and society will struggle perhaps for a lifetime what nature took just nine months to firmly implant �DNA style. A never-ending boxing match between how his parents nuture him and how God natured him. There will be countless rematches after countless defeats until one gives up and bites the dust. So how do we get out of this quagmire? If like the sanguine, decision making is difficult, deciding to make firm decisions could simply be another weak decision. His resolve is his weakness. We cannot therefore advice him to learn to make strong resolutions. I read and hear too many motivational speakers who prescribe attitudes as if nobody knows what right attitudes are or should be. Like this confused sanguine, it has always been a question of how. Your chances of overcoming your weakness comes down to pretty much one thing. Getting thoroughly and deeply dissatisfied with himself. He would need to get angry at his weakness. Anger is not a decision. It is a dark will to destroy your weakness as mutinous soldiers overthrow a government of your life by your weakness. So in effect, things will get worse until you get angry; things will get worse before it gets better. For Komla Dumor, the failure of not becoming a doctor after years of schooling, of disappointing his parents; of failing himself was the turning point. In a very strange way, you need a mess to get out of your mess. That is what God recommended for a weak, appetite-driven, sensual gentleman called Esau. "You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck." Genesis 27:40 This mess gives you something to be angry at, unleashing a wave of anger and a chance at freedom. It creastes the conditions for a man to make desperate appeal to something external to him � something stronger than him, something interested in him - or better put it - someone interested in his weakness because of his superior strength. For the Christian, we call him God represented by his Son - Jesus Christ - someone Komla without coincidence believed in.