Transcript of a July 30, 2021 YouTube video (created/uploaded by Catherine Bell) featuring a conversational exchange between Steve and Kathryn. They critique modern tendencies toward government handouts and participation-trophy culture, argue for restoration of work ethic and personal responsibility, and urge setting goals and accountability (family Mastermind) as alternatives to dependency. They also reference near-term policy context (eviction/mortgage moratoriums lifting).
Chapters
My fellow compassionate capitalists. Stephen, Kathryn here, of course, Kathryn having to stand on the mantle of the fireplace to even pretend that she's breathing this rarefied air up here. Hey. Today, July 30, 2021, Catherine and I made a video. So that's what's happening in this day in history, actually, if you'll bear with me, I did win a couple of Academy Awards for my acting, but it's probably not going to show. Here we are, it is the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, down by two. Full count. Steve's up to bat. Here comes the pitch. He's using his fly swatter because Kathryn won't let Steve play baseball anymore. In the house. He swings. Crack to the back. Grand slam, home run. Steve wins the World Series. We're down by two. Full court press is on. Inbound baths to Steve Wall with the Tiffany basketball, because apparently that's the way Catherine rolls. She takes away my basketball. So once again, you play sports in the house, things get taken away. But she replaced it with Tiffany because she knows I've never touched this. Back to the story. Four, three, two, one. Steve shoots, scores. Apparently, that's a flat basketball. I'm good because we got a lot of valuable things hanging around here. And it didn't hit. You know, growing up, we're always the hero of our stories. We always wanted to be the, you know, hit the winning home run or shoot that final basket. We, you know, we want to save the damsel in distress from the burning building. We want to take the bullet for somebody. No, we're always the hero of the story because that's just the natural way that we think, and it's the way we naturally progress. Not once, whenever we were kids thinking about all this, did we think about, you know what? I want to be the towboy, the one who gets to wipe up the blood, sweat and tears off the floor of those who weren't afraid to make their dreams come true. You see, things have kind of gotten a little bit mixed up. And Catherine. I'm going to segue to Catherine here in a little bit. But the thing is, is that, yeah, those of us who knew that the only way that we were going to win in life, the only way that we could have that trophy before they passed out participation trophies, was to actually play the game of life and to go ahead and win, to persevere. And, you know, life is not a spectator sport. And if you chose to be a spectator, the only thing that you would find is that life is going on without you. It did not care. And just how would an insignificant contribution you made yet a bunch of people got their feelings hurt, and they said, you know what? We understand the real athletes are out there making a go of it in life. And yes, there may be a chance that they might fail, but there's also a chance that they might have victory. But we love that hardware. Whenever they win, we love the trophy. So can you give us a trophy, too, please? Just because we participate. And that's what. That's what's going on today. And so with that flawless segue, I will turn it over to Kathryn. You've seen my acting skills. Seen.
So what he's referring to is what we're dealing with, with our teenagers and what we're seeing in the marketplace. It's just really interesting. And what I love about Steve is he always talks about what is history.
The study of human nature.
Right? And so if we look at the study of human nature, what was this country built on? It was built on perseverance and determination and sheer, like, will and power. Think about those people, like, seriously traveling across the plains to be able to come to the west to build everything that they built. I mean, what it took to absolutely do that. And now what our country's come to, which is a whole bunch of bailouts and handouts from the government. And what is that doing, you know, the.
It's the government participation trophy. Right.
And the impact of that is the moratoriums that have been in place now, the consequences we're about to see, what's about to happen. The moratoriums are lifting this week. So next week is going to be really interesting. What happens in the housing market in the country. You know, the reality is, what we're referring to is that when it comes to life, especially in this country, you've got to get on the court, stop being a spectator, stop waiting for government handouts. This country was built on people making it happen, having big, crazy, hairy, audacious dreams and going forward and making it happen.
And one of the things. Don't mean to interrupt you, but obviously I do. One of the things that we're talking about here, too, the underlying cause of this is that there is now a generation that does not understand that hard work and just sheer tenacity, grit, is what brought us to where we are. But in order for us to provide a better life for them, we've spoiled them. We've given them everything they've wanted, everything they could possibly desire that we didn't have, that we didn't have. It was helping them, and all we did was spoil them. They have no, they place no value on it. And it's gonna, it's, you know, the problem is that when you don't value something again, you don't work for it. You don't care if it's here or.
If it's not, and you don't take care of it.
Yeah. You think stuff just shows up on the porch because you ordered it. You never take into consideration. Yeah. You never consider the labor that goes behind it. So with that, yet another perfect segue to what Catherine was going to wrap up saying.
So inside of this, this next week's going to be. These next couple of months are going to be really, really interesting. So we're here to say, get back to work, America. Make it happen. That's what this country is built on.
We have the opportunity to make up for our mistake of spoiling the generation below us by simply showing compassionate capitalism and helping those who maybe got a little too dependent on freebies.
So create some goals, create some dreams, and put a plan of action into place into how that's gonna happen. And, and we would love to hear what your goals and dreams are and what action plan you have to make it happen. That's what we do in our family, Mastermind, and what we're teaching all of our kids, our nieces, nephews, other family members how to do and hold each other accountable to actually making that happen.
They're coming over tonight.
They are. So make sure that you click, like, Share comment. Seriously, I'd love to know what your goals and dreams are and, and if there's anything we can do to help, we would love that.
And let's help people get over being spoiled. Let's put work ethic back in America. Let's make up for our mistakes. It's not that we were infallible. It's simply we have the perseverance and the grit to make up for mistakes that we've made to learn our lessons. So look out, world, we're here. Compassionate capitalism is about to be unleashed when it comes to people with distressed mortgages. And with that, may you never awake.
