What's the colour of your collar?

An odd question, right?

On a bright morning, the early birds in my office were just discussing stuff in general as we tend to do when we get in earlier than others, and somehow, the conversation veered to "oil company workers". I must say that we were not exactly excited at the thought of how much they take home each month when compared to other workers in other sectors. We started reasoning in such ridiculous dimensions that I won't even bother putting up. I mean we work about the same hours and (maybe even harder) yet we earn far less. (Life is not fair jare). We called them "the people with the white collar". So someone asked what was the color of our own collar, and I said "blue". We definitely couldn't be regarded as white with the trimmings, if we were, I'm sure we wouldn't even be analyzing people's salaries... That was where the drama began.Someone else nicely pointed out that we should even be thankful that we had collars and mentioned that he knew a lot of people who were looking for collars regardless of the colour. I decided to itemize them today just because and to remind myself to be grateful to have a collar at all. 

• The White collar with lace trimmings. Some jobs just come with the icing on the cake. You just have it all. I once saw the payslip of my former boss and boy was I depressed? I just couldn't breathe for a while. I didn't realize some people earned such. (Just kidding) but the zeros were really many. These people don't even think before spending money at all or even after spending it. They just spend it. Have you read 50 shades of Grey? Christian Grey surely belongs in this category.  Source
• The white collar. No embellishment or trimmings here, but heck, the collar is still white. The whole idea is that it "doesn't get dirty at all". They have it all, They really don't have to sweat it out and do a good job of looking fantastic always! Sometimes they think before spending the money, but they still spend it well. Life is just a breeze.
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• The Blue collar. People in this category are comfortable. They have to work hard  to eat but life is really not that bad. If the collar gets dirty, they just buy "omo" and wash it, no biggie. In all fairness, they spend money, but they think a lot before and after. They weigh their options pretty carefully as the money is "not plucked from the tree at the backyard you know"   Source
• The Coloured collar (oh yes, some have them in vibrant colours all in one shirt...but not a tinge of white and blue...and I mean no disrespect at all). There is no frivolous spending in this category at all. In fact, they tend to spend only when it is absolutely necessary. I remember being in this category as a Corp member. I survived on the monthly allowance and it wasn't funny at all. It was during my service year that I understood the true value of money (My mum always tried to teach me but I just never wanted to know). I never knew why "Corpers" trekked all the time till I was down to my last hundreds. That day, I remembered I was able to do an endurance walk. I walked for over an hour. By the time I got home, I was too tired to remember I was hungry. I went straight to bed.

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• Alas we also have individuals who don't have collars at all. Oh, don't get your knickers in a twist, they work hard, even harder than most. My goodness, have you seen the laborer under the sun before? or traffic wardens in the sun or rain? What of the gardeners, the highway cleaners, artisans, masons? I bet I can't do half of what they do in a day, yet these category of people don't even have collars. I mean how can they have collars, it will be so messed up it will be a shame to show them up in public.                     I know one "Alfa" who used to live on my street. He is a welder. This man works like a slave, He works and works and works, yet he hardly has anything to show for it. His wife used to sell tomatoes and other petty things to try to make ends meet. One day I took my own N500 note (It had just been released by CBN) to buy tomatoes. The way the woman jumped and danced and showed the money to her neighbors and family made me ashamed to own such an amount and not regard it as anything. Sometimes, life is unfair, but its life. 

Back then, I knew the difference between the Alfa and me was education, but now I realize that although education goes a long way to give an individual a head start in life, it really isn't the only factor. Although he works so hard physically, his financial reward leaves much to be desired. The difference between him and any other young graduate or individual is the application of knowledge received. While he slaves physically under the sun, the "enlightened" individual makes use of his mental capacity. They both work with different aspects of their bodies, and they get different results and different financial rewards.

What is the color of your collar? Are you applying your mind to a task or you are exerting physical effort to accomplish something?The direction in which you apply your effort goes a long way to determine the result you achieve. 

Think wisely!!!