MY MONEY GROWS LIKE GRASS!!

I like reading car stickers. Some are downright funny, some are almost annoying, others are thought starters, and some others just simply make no sense. They come in different categories.  Religious car stickers easily take the position of most popular. At least, one of every four cars  you encounter on a Lagos road would have one. There are the general ones which are just statements of religious affiliation. For instance the car belonging to a Christian would often times carry ‘if God be for me....’  or ‘touch not my anointed’, or  ‘a life without Christ is in crisis’, ‘no Jesus, no peace; know Jesus, know peace’ , and the list goes on. The Muslim establishing his affiliation to Allah too would have ‘Allah reigns’ conspicuously displayed somewhere around his plate number.

Religious stickers sometimes take it further. Beyond just establishing that the car owner is a Christian or Muslim, it can continue to tell you the denomination and doctrine he buys into. So you would see ‘Somebody shout Halleluiah 

’ backed by the RCCG logo and you would immediately know the car belongs to a Redeemer. ‘I am a winner’ is another popular one, as is ‘Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever’ and ‘Giving your life a meaning’. In recent times, ‘Power as of old’ and ‘More than enough’ are also gaining popularity.

Another category of religious stickers are those that attempt to pass a message. The most remarkable one I have seen so far read ‘Do not be fooled by the size of my car, my treasure is stored in heaven’. It had me laughing and thinking all through the day.  Away from religious stickers, we have the ‘God bless Nigeria’ stickers, these are quite popular too. Ranking next would be the alumnus stickers. You would often see ‘Great Ife’, ‘Better by far’, ‘Great Lions’, ‘The first is still the best’ or my personal favorite; ‘Great Akokaite’ or ‘The Nation’s Pride’.

The next set of stickers is those that show your profession. It ranges from simple stickers like ‘Member, NBA’, ‘PRESS’, ‘SAN’,‘FRSC’ then progresses to more explicit ones like ‘We care but God saves’ or ‘Call me, I am a Lawyer’.

If you have followed my train of thought, you would realize that car stickers say a lot about car owners. From just seeing a car sticker, you can tell the religion of the car owner, if he’s a Christian, you’ll know the particular church where he worships; you’ll know what university he attended, you’ll know his profession, his level of patriotism and maybe even his ideology towards life. All that information, from just car stickers!  Whether or not the conduct and drive patterns of these car owners on the road support the claims so boldly made by these stickers is a topic for another day.

We should also talk about ‘talking tees’. Those have in fact become a medium of advertising for events and companies. People also unknowingly sell their personal brands through their t-shirts. So a lady wears ‘hot and sexy’, and you already know what she sees as her unique selling point. There are even more daring ones like ‘Don’t touch what you can’t afford’. Guys who wear ‘I am your next ex-boyfriend’ should just be avoided by serious minded ladies. Owning an ‘Oga at the top’ shirt shows you to be an ardent trend watcher and follower. The one I can totally not get over is ‘my money grows like grass’! So many people wear that shirt and the inscription makes absolutely no sense to me regardless of how many times and in how many ways I have considered it. You could agree or disagree but that talking tee actually talks about you. As do your Facebook status, Tweets, Instagram updates, Blackberry display pictures and personal messages. They all make statements about your person.

Statements about your sense of style and taste, about your ideologies and the things you hold dear. All those things announce the things you are not even sure you want to say yet.  From the very first meeting, one can conclude on your person and what one would be safe to offer you or not. A few years ago, first impressions were formed based on character traits such as comportment, respect and dressing. Now, one does not have to look too far or wait too long anymore, your tee shirt, car sticker and social media update is enough to fill up your curriculum vitae.

Your values, comportment, ideologies, degree of self worth, creativity, ingenuity, experience and world view can be determined from these tiny seemingly insignificant things. So what’s my point? First, call a conference with yourself; determine exactly what you stand for and why. Determine how best to say it and how not to say it. Then, henceforth, do not think about it when you are dressing for a job interview or updating your CV alone. Think about it every day, before you update that status or put up that post, buy that sticker or wear that tee shirt. You are always communicating, sending out messages which people always receive. Unfortunately, they often do not ask you exactly what you mean, they just form conclusions.

Of course, you can only give what you have, if you have no values or character strength, then, you have nothing to protect. If however, you stand for something, perhaps you confess a faith or have a good name to uphold, then, you have a responsibility to ascertain that your mouth, character, appearance, online presence and all communication from you say one and the same thing.

I foresee a future in no distant time when employers will only have to add you on blackberry or follow you on twitter to gauge your character and determine your employ-ability. On another level, I am convinced that the God who sees even the secret things of the hearts of men can read your online posts too. What if, just what if all of those count too on judgement day!

Photo credit: www.dhgate.com