Temperament Driven Success

Case Study

I asked a young girl who had just completed her West African Senior School Certificate Examination to tell me something interesting about herself. She responded, “Hmmm, there is nothing interesting about my life”.

Her statement and mindset about herself at this young age got me very sad and worried. After a ten minute chat, I got to know that she had a poor grade in the maths paper which is a core subject, so she would have to rewrite the paper before she would be accepted into her desired university. This therefore meant skipping university for a year. Meanwhile, she intended to take on menial job to survive. “Young lady” I said, “Do not entertain such thoughts about yourself. We all have something good inside us that we can use and develop to create interesting things in our lives and for society”. I went further to find out what she was good at or what she enjoyed doing and found so much joy in doing, no matter how tired she might be. I was excited about her response – “Madam, I love to design. I can design any accessory, be it shoes, bags, hats and anything you could think of”. “What about fashion? “Are you interested in being a fashion designer” I asked. Her eyes now lit up and she went ahead to explain how she wanted to learn sewing but her mother unfortunately fell ill to the point where she was in a wheelchair, so all focus and available funds were used to take care of her mother.