A few more thoughts in addition to my "patience" advice...
Don't chase a particular temp - if you get the cooker settled at a temperature reasonably close to the target you have in mind, leave the cooker alone rather than trying to tweak the vents to adjust that last 10° or 15° (of even 25° while you're learning the cooker). As long as you're close, it just won't make much difference in the final result and you'll feel a lot less stressed.
Don't light a big pile of charcoal in an attempt to get the cooker up to temperature quickly; you're likely to overshoot your target temp and then when you close down the vents to bring the temp down you risk snuffing the fire out. You also increase the risk of running out of charcoal before your cook is over and it's a real pain to refill most komodos. If you're using a torch to light the charcoal, light just a small area of charcoal and let the fire naturally propagate. I usually just light a half or quarter of a
charcoal chimney and dump on top of the charcoal in the cooker, trying to concentrate the burning charcoal in one area rather than spreading it across all of it.
Bring the temperature up slowly and let the cooker heat soak before putting the food on. This will let the mass of the cooker help hold the temperature steady or recover to target temp when opening the lid. I have a large kamado with very thick walls and try to allow for at least an hour for it to come to to target temp and head soak before adding the food.
The advice above also holds when using a temperature controller - most controllers will run wide open when you first light your fire since you'll be way below the target temp, causing it to overshoot and shut off the fan. If you're cooker is heat soaked, the temperature will drop slowly, risking snuffing the fire; some controllers are smart enough to still pulse the fan occasionally to keep the fire from going out but then you end up never bringing the temperature down. Some controllers also attempt to "learn" the cooker and how fast it responds to the fan cycling, but cooker response will change and slow down once fully heat soaked. I limit the by either running without the controller until my cooker is 75°-100° below the target temp or setting the controller well below my actual target temp and then stepping out up several times to allow the cooker to slowly come up to temperature and heat soak. That's where having a controller that you can monitor and adjust remotely comes in handy - i can be doing other things away from the cooker while it comes up to temp.