Do You Really Own It?

We spend our lives trying to own things.

A home.
Land.
A business.
Money in the bank.
Something we can point to and say, “That’s mine.”

But is ownership really that simple?

In this episode of The King’s Court, King Roberto takes on what it actually means to own something... not just legally, not just on paper, but in real life. Because everything worth owning comes with responsibility. Land has taxes, rules, maintenance, and limits. Homes have repairs. Businesses carry payroll, risk, employees, customers, and families depending on the decisions being made.

And yes, this episode pushes back on the idea that everything should belong to everyone.

Because when everybody owns it, somebody still has to control it.
Somebody still has to pay for it.
Somebody still has to fix the dishwasher.

Real ownership is not just possession.

It is responsibility.

From land and business to money, family, time, influence, and legacy, this conversation asks a simple question:

Do you really own it?

Or are you just holding the keys for a little while?

👑 Royal Decree:

Ownership is not possession. Ownership is responsibility. Protect what you have. Improve what you have. Pass forward something better than what was handed to you. Because at some point, everything we own becomes someone else’s problem, someone else’s opportunity, or someone else’s inheritance.

Long live the Kingdom.

🎙 About The King’s Court

The King’s Court is a podcast about leadership, legacy, family, brotherhood, faith, and life lived in real time. Each episode is part of an ongoing archive — preserving stories, perspective, and the voice behind the crown.

If something in this episode resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

That's mine. Let me have it. No, I own that. Words that we have heard since we've been kids. Some of the first things we argued about. Who gets it? Who does it belong to? Well, we're gonna talk about that in the podcast tonight. We spend a lot of our lives working towards ownership. And that starts when we're young. We want to own the toys. We want to own the games. We want to own the most friends. We want to own a home when we grow up instead of rent one. We want the land instead of a lease. You want to own a business instead of having a job. You want the money in the bank, but not the payment being due. It goes back to those younger years growing up when we used to say, This is mine. But is it when you buy land or a home, you pay taxes on it. When you build a home, depending on where you have the land that you're building it on, you can't just build it because there are certain rules that come with it. And they say what you can do with it. You own a business, but there are employees, customers, debt, risk, responsibility that comes with it. So it begs the question Do we really own anything? Or are we just the people holding the keys right now? Tonight I want to talk about ownership. Not just the legal kind, not just the kind printed on a deed or a bank statement, but the responsibility that comes with having something in your name. The farther that our country gets into its life cycle. 250 years in this year, the average homeowner is 41 years old, up from 37 years old a couple years ago, up from their late 20s, maybe 20 years ago. Why does that matter? For most people, it matters because owning your own home, it's independence. No longer dependent on somebody else to provide your family or you shelter, place to get out of the weather. It's your home. It brings security with it. Want to go inside and lock your doors? You go inside and lock your doors. And they're your doors, right? Because you paid for them. For a lot of people, owning your own home is proof that all that work meant something. Busted your butt for who knows how long. If you're one of the few that are in your own early 40s before you own your own home, you've been working for 20 years to get there. Twenty years before you own your own home. All that work before you can finally say, it's mine. I got it. It's mine. A lot of people, it might be the first home in their entire family that they owned, and they are proud of that. They are going to own that home and take care of it, and they're going to pass it down to their children one day so that they can have a home. But that American idea of freedom, hard work, the strength of your back, build something and keep it. It all comes down to ownership. Because there's something powerful about walking onto a piece of land or into your home through a business that you helped build and knowing it didn't happen by accident, that is inside of you. It wells up. It is pride. You are proud of it. Because you worked for it. When it's yours, you took the risk. You kept showing up when it would have been easier not to. And you hear it all the time. The counter-argument. Nobody should own anything. It should be everybody's. The land belongs to everybody. The resources belong to everybody. Nobody should have that much money. What's that about? It's a bunch of crap. Because what it really is, is they don't want somebody else to own it when they don't. They don't want somebody else to have all of that money when they don't. They don't want somebody else to have the house when they don't. They want to be able to control what somebody else has. But when they get the control of it and nobody owns it, who do you think pays for the dishwasher that's broken in that house? Who is it that pays to repair the air conditioner when it goes out? It's all about control when they say that. But not you. Not me. I'm in the mine crowd. I'm the king. I have my own kingdom. Think I don't want to own what's mine? Absolutely. But what am I doing with it? Because the truth of the matter is, ownership is not as simple as possession. Take, for example, a raw piece of land. Nothing exists on it. No building, no house, no nothing. Just a raw piece of land. You know what you get when you buy that raw piece of land? You get the privilege of paying property taxes on that piece of land. That's right. You get the privilege of being told what you can or cannot build on that piece of land. You get the privilege of paying for insurance on that piece of land just in case somebody else comes onto it and hurts themselves on your piece of land. The maintenance and the rules of it. Isn't that awesome? And you own it. Or so they tell you. Let's think about your house. Let's think about that house that you own. And this is the argument between somebody who rents and somebody owns. Let's say you need a new water heater. When you own that house, you're paying for the new water heater. When you rent it, you call the landlord. And they're paying for the new water heater. Now, you're paying for the privilege of the landlord to replace that water heater for you. But it's not your responsibility to take care of it. And when you own it, you don't get to decide if you want to do it or not. It's required for you to remain in a livable space. One of my favorites is people talking about the businesses out there. So-and-so should not have this or that because they own a business. Their business that they started should not compensate them so much money for their work. The value of their business should not be so tremendous that it gives them a very high net worth because it's not real value. It's the value of the asset that somebody else is willing to pay for it. It's not even money in the bank. But those businesses, they come with responsibilities. Just because you own a business doesn't mean la di-da. We're off and running. Nothing to do. Business owners are probably the hardest working people out there. And why do they do it? It's not to make more money. The ones who care, it's to make a difference in the world. I'm in construction. I do it because I love to build things. I love to see people's reactions after something that is built for them that they have dreamed of becomes a reality. It's one of the coolest things that you'll ever see. Yeah, it's hard. Yeah, when you own a business, you're paying the employees. And you don't just get a pick when you pay your employees, right? You pay them whether the money's in the bank or not. You figure it out. They work expecting a paycheck. So if you don't have the money in the bank, you go get it. You sell a car, sell a truck, take a loan out, do something. You pay the people who are working for you. You take care of them. Not only that, you have legal obligations. Because let's face it, as a business owner, you might as well put a target on your back. Everybody in the world would love to file a lawsuit against you because you're a business owner and you're rich. Whether you are or not, you are. But you get the insurance. Businesses, if you've been keeping up with auto insurance rates, business owners pay the highest car insurance of anybody. It's almost double of what you and I pay for our personal auto insurance. But bigger than any of it, a business owner has the responsibility of making thoughtful decisions and choices because those decisions affect people and families. The money that's earned comes with responsibility. Comes with responsibility of how it's spent, how it's invested, how it's passed down. You own it. It's yours. What are you going to do with it? And even things that we consider to be ours can be lost through a bad decision, bad timing, a bad debt. Maybe you get sick, go through a divorce. God forbid somebody dies. Or you just get lazy and you don't take care of it. Ownership sounds like freedom. I own it. It's mine. I'm free. Until you realize that everything worth owning also requires something from you. Because the bigger the thing, the bigger the responsibility. Possession says, and here's the difference. Possession says, This is mine. What can I get from it? And you think about that. This is mine. What can I get from it? How many times do you ask yourself that? Maybe you don't. But I would bet a lot of you say, this is mine. How can I leverage that to better myself, to better my standing in life? Stewardship says, I have this for now. What am I supposed to do with it? And that's the difference between it. When you own it, how do you think of it? Do you think of it as your possession? It's yours. How can I leverage that to make my life better? Or do you think of yourself as a steward of it? Somebody who's going to take care of it to make sure that it lasts long enough to be experienced by more people than just you. You think about that piece of land you build, you bought, or that house. You can buy it and let it fall apart. Or you can buy that lot and build too big of a house or too big of a building. You can abuse it. You can drain all the water from it. You can cut all the trees down and clear it. You can leave it worse than you found it. But you own it, right? And you did all of that so that you could advance yourself in life. You didn't need to take care of it because it was a short-term investment for you. It was quick cash. But what if you took that same property, that same house, and you improved it? What if you put more landscaping in? Planted more trees. What if you protected it? What if you built it up? What if you made it useful? Maybe you've got acreage and you can raise livestock or horses. Maybe you plant a farm. Maybe you create something that serves your family or your community for decades. Something that's not going to drain the land, but it's going to improve the land. Family business, I'm in it right now. I can own the business and I can take every dollar out of it. So can my family members. And why not, right? It's theirs. It's mine. I'll do whatever the hell I want with it. Sure. A lot of people have that attitude. And they certainly can. It is theirs at the end of the day. But what if they shift that just a little bit? What if they say we can build this business? We can build this company. We can build the systems. We can improve it. We can build something that contributes to society, to the community, make it useful. Create something that serves not only our family and ourselves, but other families who choose to work there, other people who choose to benefit from the services of the company. You can make it amazing. You can make sure that it survives longer than you. The same thing goes for your money, right? Once you get that money, once you've earned that money, what do you do with it? You spend it on whatever you want. You can spend it to impress people who really don't care. You can buy whatever materialistic things you want to. Make yourself feel good. Or you can use that money and maybe you treat it a little bit differently. Create a little breathing room. You save some up to afford yourself opportunity when something comes your way, an investment or a proposal. Maybe you spend it on your education. Not that I am a big proponent of going out and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to put yourself through college. But you can use that money for education. Stability in the future for the people who come after you. Having something in your name doesn't automatically mean that you are taking care of it. Just because you own it doesn't default to your taking care of it. You actually have to do the work. Because there are people who inherit a lot and they leave nothing. You know them. You've heard the stories. There's families who have a lot. When the parents die, the siblings squander it all. Because they can't get along. They can't figure out how the inheritance is supposed to work. People who grow up poor and are left with great inheritances, or they also win the lottery, or something like that, they enjoy it for a very short time because they don't know how to manage it. They don't know what to do with it. And owning things in that regard sometimes is not for everybody. And then you got the opposite side, right? You have the people who grew up poor. Started out in an orphanage when they were young. Parents died when they were five. Now they're 35, and they have a Fortune 500 company that they built from scratch. They have a wife and two children happily married. They happen to be one of our clients that I'm building a building for right now, and their story is actually amazing. They started out in a little town in Alabama. And now they're huge with what they do. They employ thousands of people, make the difference in thousands of lives in communities across the United States. You talk about stewardship versus possession. They build that company, they're taking care of it. They're going to make sure that it lasts for a long time for a lot of people to benefit from. But here's what we don't own. We don't own our family. Our kids. We don't own them. We are responsible for them. For a season in their lives. Anybody who's had children who've grown up and have moved out, understand this. And if you're grown up and if you grown up and have children of your own and they are growing up, you're experiencing that season. You get the privilege of helping shape who they become. And you only can pray that they turn out well. Because you don't own them. You're a steward of them. Time is another one. Time doesn't belong to us. There's no stopping it. Nobody knows how much you're gonna get. You don't own time. It's limited what you have here while you have it. What are you gonna do with it? And that's hard for some people to wrap their head around. You know, kids, kids, young adults out partying and having the time, what they think is the time of their lives, drinking, fighting, doing all sorts of stuff that we used to do. I mean, heck, I was a kid one time, I did it too. Not necessarily to the level that some other people do it, but I had a good time when I was a kid. Making those memories, you know. But spending that time with people you love, conversations that you put off and work that you're doing. Time is one of those things you don't know how much you got and you don't own it, so make the most of what you do have. And if you don't understand that, I can't necessarily help you. I can only lead a horse to water. I can't make them drink, right? How about influence? There's another one you don't own influence over anybody or your own influence. You know, people lend it to you. You think you have influence over somebody, you're mistaken. They trust you with that influence, and they can take it back anytime they want, because it's not your influence, it's influence that's given to you by as a result of your actions. We see it in our community leaders a lot. I'd love to say we see it in our politicians, and we do see the effect of their influence and the influence that a lot of people give them. But we also see what happens when they stop receiving that influence. So, what about us? What are we leaving behind? Because at some point, everybody leaves something behind, everybody creates their own legacy. At some point, everything that we own will become somebody else's problem, somebody else's opportunity, or somebody else's inheritance. So ask yourself this. That house that you own, in that land that you own, are you leaving it better than you found it? Did you build that business that you own? Did you build it up stronger than when you stepped into it? And I'm not I'm not just saying this stuff. This is the a lot of this is the mantra of the king, right? I I try to live by this stuff, but I'm asking you to think about it too. Do you leave your kids wisdom and not just stuff? It's one of the biggest things on birthdays anymore. Tell my kids, don't give me anything. Don't buy me stuff, don't buy me anything. I don't need anybody to buy me anything. It's just stuff. Spend time with me. I would rather have 15 minutes of time talking to you about your life than anything that you could buy. Are you creating a system? A system that will survive when you're not in it? Or maybe you are one of the few that received an inheritance of something? My question to you is did you protect that which you were given that the previous generation sacrificed to build and left you? Did you protect it? Did you take care of it? Did you leave it better than when it was given to you? Are the decisions you're making for the long term, even when the short-term decision is easier? All these questions come with being a king. They come with wearing the crown. But they apply to everybody, right? They apply to you as much as they apply to me. Because the legacy is not just what you leave behind, it's not just what you leave behind, but it's what remains stronger because you were here. Think about that. Because nobody gets it perfect. None of us are going to make every decision right. And I say this all the time. If I get more right than I get wrong, I think I'm doing okay. As long as we're, you know, on the upward trend, we're doing okay. I'm doing something right. Two steps forward, one step back. You're still moving forward. Sure, it sucks to go back. But it happens. You're gonna spend money wrong sometimes. We're going to neglect stuff. We're gonna get too busy to take care of things, we're gonna get distracted. It's going to happen. But the goal is not to be perfect with any of it. The goal is to think beyond yourself, beyond ourselves, beyond myself. It's part of having a kingdom, let me tell you. You think about the kingdom, you don't just think about the king or being the king. So maybe true ownership is not about having total control. Maybe it's not about making sure nobody else can ever touch what you build. Maybe true ownership is accepting the responsibility of being the person trusted with it right now. So ask yourself, do you really own it? Or are you just holding it for a little while? Here's a royal decree for you. If you're only holding it for a little while, what are you going to do with it before it becomes somebody else's responsibility? Build it, protect it, improve it, leave it better than when you found it. I am King Roberto coming to you from the King's Lair on the King's Court Podcast. If you like this episode, send me an email. Find me on Instagram, X, YouTube, somehow get a hold of me. If you're watching this on YouTube right now, it's on the screen. If you're not, go to the podcast site where you're downloading this podcast from and click the talk back button and leave me a message. Would love to hear from you. I will see you. Well, actually, I won't. I'll talk to you again soon. Goodbye.