‘Johnny come lately’ on role models

A little over eight months ago, I was conducting interviews of fresh graduates from the university. They had all applied for jobs as junior associates at an SME business advisory firm that I happen to be a partner at. One of the interview questions was to name three role models and explain why they particularly appealed to the interviewee. All respondents listed President Paul Kagame as one of their role models for obvious reasons.For any Rwandan born in the late 80s as all the interviewees were, their story is the RPF/A liberation struggle and the rebirth of Rwanda as a nation after the Genocide against the Tutsi. At the helm of all this stands the iconic freedom fighter turned statesman. It’s not difficult to see why such a figure would feature on a young person’s role models short list.I now recollect that three years prior to these interviews, I had also been asked to name my role models while attending a training programme in Okinawa, Japan. It was some kind of bonding exercise in which you got to know the other trainees better. I remember instinctively listing Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara the Argentine freedom fighter, Winston Churchill, the English politician, and Nelson Mandela the South African anti-apartheid activist with whom I proudly share a birthday.A fourth and less well known name did feature on my list; Alistair Cooke, the British turned American broadcaster who wrote and read “Letter from America” on the BBC world service from 1946 to 2004.At the time, I applied no methodical approach to the selection process. Later after close observation, I found a common thread that bound me to my role models. It was the desire to leave one’s comfort zone to serve others. I drew inspiration from all my role models for having done exactly that. They came from relatively comfortable homes, got a proper education and went ahead to take on public roles that did not guarantee their own comfort or wealth for that matter.An online blog “Roots of Action” identified qualities that matter to young people as they seek role models. They conducted a survey among students and collated the results with findings among young adult facebook users. The five qualities that emerged on top of the list were; passion and ability to inspire, clear set of values, commitment to community, selflessness and acceptance of others and ability to overcome obstacles.According to a survey conducted in 2008 in the UK, school teachers listed Jesus Christ, George W Bush (former US president) and Frank Lampard (professional footballer at Chelsea FC) as the three most popular role models among school children. This only serves to show how diverse the definition of a role model can be.A simple definition available from dictionary.com refers to a role model as “a person whose behaviour, example or success is or can be emulated by others especially younger people”.From this definition, two things are most significant about role models. First, they must create a desire within the observer to want to be like them. Secondly, the role model must also be accessible to the observer. It would be extremely difficult for anyone to emulate somebody that is not accessible to them.This is the very reason public or well known figures feature prominently as role models. It’s their currency that makes them special. There might have been people in the past that did better what today’s stars do but that is irrelevant. The concept of accessibility demands of our role models to be contemporary. Take the example of Frank Lampard in the 2008 survey. There is no doubt Pele and Maradona were better footballers. Sadly, they did not make it to even the extended list of 20 most popular role models. The same list featured people like Paris Hilton and Kelly Osbourne!With hind sight, I now acknowledge that the interviewees that turned up at our firm last September understood something I did not. They had role models like Didier Drogba whom they saw displaying his talent day in day out and earning millions while at it! They knew his story, he was African like them and he was accessible to them. They were inspired by him, they wanted to be like him; more precisely they wanted to live the life that he lives; to emulate him.Maybe there is such a thing as too much information. I say this because I met my role models in books, newspapers, on radio and TV. None of them has impacted me directly and all of them were in their prime years well before I was even born. It’s more a case of admiration for their noble efforts in making the world a better place.I could have done just as well or better by looking closer to home; for revolutionary figures do not come any better than late Fred Gisa Rwigema and President Paul Kagame. Their stories from the various struggles they went through are enough to fill Kigali Public Library and then some. I am sure Sina Gerard’s success story is as inspirational as any other would be to any Rwandan youngster intending to go into business today.Sometimes we look for things far and wide when they are right before our own eyes!

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‘Johnny come lately’ on role models