I woke up a few days ago to ease myself at the dawn of the morning only to realise I slept with glasses on my eyes, eye piece on my ears and my device was playing the famous “I have a dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, and smiled after recalling that earlier that night I was watching one of his videos “I have been to the mountaintop” before sleep took me unaware.

That has been like the routine for the past weeks, I watch any of his speeches before sleeping. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, is one person I hold with so much high esteem; even when I have exams to write, I still read his speeches and you dare not touch any of his books. So many times I wish I could just be like him.

But I realised that being like Martin Luther King Jr will only make me a second version of him and a “substandard duplicate” beside, though he died at 39, he lived a fulfilled life. If I copy him, what will happen to Musa Rhapsodi Affos? People will only say, “He writes like Dr. Kings''. While I'm supposed to be my original version and ought to strive to fulfil life and destiny before death comes calling.

Just like me, a lot of people have role models, mentors they want to emulate and some are obsessed with them already. Some artists want to sing exactly like Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa, Simi, MI Abaga etc which is good but the aforementioned are already successful in their field haven made a name for themselves and carved a niche for themselves respectively.

Copying them will only make you a second version of Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Tiwa etc. And no sensible entity will ignore the original version for a lesser one. People will only say “He or she sings like Wizkid, Burna Boy, Simi” While on the contrary you can be a better singer singing like your real self.

But you can learn from them, thereby developing yourself and brand. Imagine if the person that came up with the handset decided to settle for telephone, by now his market would have been obsolete and not selling.

I'm not against mentorship or following role models because personally I have mentors and role models. My call here is we shouldn't strive to be exactly like our earthly role models forgetting our own uniqueness. We learn from people to develop ourselves as some of them serve as pathways for reshaping our lives and our thought pattern so we could be who we were intended to be.

Elijah was like a role model and mentor to Elisha, at the end, Elisha got a double portion of his boss’s anointing. Elijah’s last miracle was Elisha’s first.

Left to me, the peak of Elijah’s Miracles became the least of Elisha ‘s.

Oliver Gold Smith once said “Everyone was intended to be what no one has ever been and to do what no one has ever done”.

Copying others is denying the world of originality. Your originality distinguishes you.

Musa Affos Rhapsodi is a Blogger & Social Media activist.

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