Pick any newspaper. We are 100 percent confident there’s a major story today—the day you’re taking this quiz—that will snap into focus if you understand how ownership really works. How can we be so sure? Ownership invisibly shapes every day of our lives. Every minute!  Whether you stand at the front of the line or the back. It’s where you live, what you drive and what you watch. Hundreds of times a day, you encounter the ownership rules that decide who gets what.

Here’s the thing—businesses and governments use ownership like a remote control. They choose the rules that steer you invisibly and powerfully to do what they want. But ownership is always up for grabs—far more than most of us realize. If there is one lesson we want you to take away from this quiz, it’s that what’s “mine” is not something fixed or natural. Ownership is a choice, and if you’re not the one choosing, then someone else is choosing for you.

In this quiz, developed from material in our new book, Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Your Life, we give you a quick and easy way to check if you know how ownership really works—and to improve your understanding. Sometimes the law really matters; sometimes not, and at times the real story is altogether different. With a better awareness of the hidden rules of ownership you should be able to:

  • Take command of the ownership remote control as a parent, consumer and citizen, and
  • Deflect the remote control when others use it to steer you in unwelcome ways.

While the stakes of ownership are high, the stakes for the quiz are low. The seven questions reflect familiar situations from everyday life.  You can answer them in less than five minutes. There are no wrong answers. We score the questions so you can see how familiar you are with the hidden rules of ownership that steer your life. To take the test, scroll down in the box below for the first question.

So how did you do?

If you scored up to 10, don’t worry. The quiz is meant to introduce you to some powerful ownership tools, so you can be more alert to them in the future.

If you scored between 11 and 16, you have a good sense of how the hidden rules of ownership really work. Well done.

If you scored above 16, wow!  You have a rare understanding of who gets what and why.

Every answer can show you something surprising about how ownership works. We provide links to free resources—including a free eBook and short videos—that give you the tools to take control of the ownership remote control in your life.

This was adapted from MINE! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives.