Executive TLDR
Ownership means acting like the business is yours before it is.
Choices—not chances—determine success.
Standards must be enforced, not just discussed.
Leaders set the tone through discipline and consistency.
Identity drives behavior—become the person you want to be.
Video Summary
In Ownership, Standards, Identity: The Three Decisions That Change Everything, Eduar Fernandez shares the foundational principles that shifted his life trajectory and leadership growth.
He begins with gratitude toward mentors and coaches, emphasizing that leadership is built on strong foundations and community. As a young immigrant from Cuba who arrived in the United States with very little, Eduar highlights how opportunity alone is not enough—decisions shape destiny.
1. Ownership
Ownership is the first decision that changes everything. Eduar explains that many people want success, income, and recognition, but few operate with true ownership. Ownership means showing up as if you are responsible for the entire outcome. If a meeting starts at 7:00 PM, an employee mindset arrives at 6:59. An ownership mindset arrives 30–60 minutes early to ensure everything is prepared.
He shares his upbringing—growing up in poverty, raised by hardworking immigrant parents who held multiple jobs. While many peers from his environment struggled later in life, he chose to take ownership of his future. He made a decision that even though he did not come from a wealthy family, a wealthy family would come from him.
The key lesson: everyone has the same chance, but not everyone makes the same choices.
2. Standards
Standards are not what you talk about—they are what you enforce. Eduar emphasizes that leaders must demonstrate discipline consistently. Whether facing personal challenges, family emergencies, or life transitions, he maintained his commitment to his team and business.
By maintaining high standards—showing up, producing, leading—he sets the cultural expectation for his organization. If leaders lower their standards, the team follows. Standards create momentum, consistency, and long-term growth.
He explains that leaders cannot make excuses and expect strong teams. The tone at the top defines the performance at every level.
3. Identity
The third decision is identity. Eduar teaches that success begins with deciding who you want to become. Once that identity is chosen, actions must align with it.
Act like the person you want to be. Speak like them. Develop their habits. Adopt their discipline.
He shares a powerful story of a man asking God to remove obstacles from his life, only to discover in a symbolic funeral that the only obstacle was himself. The mirror in the casket represented personal responsibility.
The final takeaway is clear: ownership eliminates excuses, standards build culture, and identity drives behavior. When those three align, results change permanently.
Success is not about circumstances—it is about the decisions you make daily.
FAQs
1. What are the three decisions that change everything?
Ownership, standards, and identity.
2. What does ownership mean in business?
Taking full responsibility for outcomes and acting like the business is yours.
3. Why are standards important?
Standards create consistency and shape team culture.
4. How do leaders influence standards?
By modeling discipline and enforcing expectations daily.
5. What determines success—chance or choice?
Choices determine long-term success.
6. How does identity affect results?
Identity shapes habits, behaviors, and daily decisions.
7. Can someone from a difficult background succeed?
Yes. Background does not determine destiny—choices do.
8. What happens when leaders lower their standards?
The entire organization’s performance declines.
9. How can someone develop an ownership mindset?
Act as if every result depends on your effort and preparation.
10. Why is discipline emphasized?
Discipline sustains momentum and builds long-term growth.
11. How do standards impact team performance?
Teams rise or fall to the standards leaders enforce.
12. What role does personal responsibility play?
It eliminates excuses and drives consistent improvement.
13. How do you change your identity?
Decide who you want to become and align actions accordingly.
14. Why do some people fail despite opportunity?
They do not make the choices required for growth.
15. What is the core message of this talk?
Take ownership, raise your standards, redefine your identity—and everything changes.
Glossary
Ownership Mindset – Acting with full responsibility for outcomes.
Standards – The measurable behaviors and expectations enforced within a team.
Identity of a Winner – A self-concept aligned with disciplined habits and leadership behavior.
Personal Responsibility – Accepting that results are shaped by your decisions.
Leadership Culture – The environment created by consistent standards and example.
Transcript:
Thank you guys so much for coming up here. I just want to thank all the great speakers. You know, Tesla, that was absolutely incredible. You know, Olivier, just all of you guys, they’re so incredible. And you know, it takes a village to raise a child. And all these people have had such a significant impact on me all the way across. Obviously, my great coaches, right? The Ortiz’s Charlemagne. I mean, it’s just so, so special. I just want to thank, you know, all of you guys for what you do. You guys really make a huge difference in my life and a huge impact and all you leaders. You know, we stand on the shoulders of giants because of the foundation that you guys have set. So let’s give it up for all these great, amazing coaches, right?
You know, really quick, just want to thank some of my top leaders, right? No particular order, but my three RVPs, Leighton Brown, $250,000 earner, give it up for him. Alan Luis Kamejo, $250,000 earners, give it up for them as well. And ryan Asaha is $100,000 earner before the age of 19. Very, very special. So give it up, guys. But I want to talk to you guys today about a couple things, because if you want to make 20, 26 different, then you’re gonna have to move different, right? And I have three main things that really caused me to just take a total different trajectory in my life. And the first thing is ownership, right? Ownership is so important because if you want ownership, you have to own your ship.
So so many of us, you know, we want to make the money, and most of us agree that 100,000 is pretty good when you first start off, right? And after you make 100,000. But guys, look, ownership is so special, right? If you do it right, you become a net worth millionaire, you get a chance to save a lot of money, right? You get to promote some vice presidents, but you got to have ownership if you want to build a business here. You know, there’s a big difference that if you show up to a meeting that your RVP is running, then if you show up to the meeting like you’re running the meeting, right? Because if you let your upline do everything, then that means if the meeting’s at 7, we know we get there at 6:59, 6:58. Right? 6:55.
But, but if you’re running the meeting, you know, you’re gonna show up 30 minutes, you know, 45 minutes, an hour before, because you have to make sure that the chairs are in line, that the music is Good that the zoom is. You understand what I’m saying? So, guys, look, I started with this company when I was 19 years old. My parents and I, we won a lottery ticket to come to United States. So I was born in this very small town in Cuba. We were born super poor. Like, my dad used to make $14 for the month, right? That was my household income for the month, guys, right? And you know, and were. We left Cuba because my family has always been oppressed by the communist regiment.
So we came here and the only thing we had here when we got here, just the clothes on our back. My dad was a factory worker and my mom worked at restaurants. And they always worked two to three jobs, right? Immigrants. We can relate, right? Always multiple jobs at the same time. And growing up, I just wanted to be somebody. I wanted to become somebody special. I wanted to do something great. And I remember my parents working two, three jobs and growing up at a rec center. Working, right? My mom would drop me off 6:30am at the school and they would come and pick me up at 6:30 at night, right after school, I would go to the neighborhood rec center. So, you know, when I first got with Gabby, right? Give it up for Gabby. My better half, for sure. Okay.
You know, when I first got with Gabby, she would be like, man, how do you. Cause we’d go places. There’s not. Not everybody that knows me is like the best looking people. Olivier, right? So she was like, how do you know all these people? Like, they do not look friendly, right? Like tattoos. I go to a restaurant, the cook in the back comes, yo, hey, what’s up? Right? And it’s like, yo, these people. And I’m like, babe, I grew up out of the neighborhood rec center, right? My parents used to pay $150 for the year and I can stay there from 3 to 7pm every single night. And we did that during regular school, you know, holidays. So there’s a certain type of kids, right? When usually the parents work a lot, right? So we grew that.
And what I realized, I was like, man, so many of the people that I grew up with, like, how come most of them are not successful, right? How come most of them are either in jail, how come some of them have died? How come some of them, you know, can barely scrape a dollar together? And guys. And it’s a couple reasons, but one of the big reasons, number one, they didn’t take ownership for their life. See, even though I didn’t come from a rich family, I committed and took ownership that A rich family will come from me. You understand? And guys, I’m telling you. And you guys all have the same chance. You know I love the company, right? We all have the same chance, right? But we don’t all make the same choices, right?
And the reason that some people, right, you can take a man that comes from. From Haiti, multiple, right? Comes from Haiti barefoot, right? In their country, struggling to come over here and become a multi millionaire, that’s because of the choices, not just because of the chances, right? When you take a man that comes from Puerto Rico, military, knows nothing about the business, and could become a cash millionaire multiple times, over and over again. See, that’s not just the chances. That’s the choices. Because we all have the same chance of building a business here. Why do some of us go on and do something big and some of us don’t? Because it’s not always about the chances. It’s about the what, guys? Choices. Number two, standards, right? You gotta have standards for your life. You gotta have standards for everything that you do.
And standards is not what you talk about. Standards is what you enforce. You know? And I love coming up here and name calling. Cause my friends, I get to see them every three months, right? Like Tescher Rezi, my right? Charlemagne. And I’ve seen them for years, right? And the reason they can build such a strong business, right? The reason Ed can build such a strong business and so many of these great leaders is because the standards that they set in their organization. You know, like Olivier said, look, dude, guys, both of my mom and dad have had cancer before I was 30. From 25 to 30, we got beat up like it was everything. But you know what was crazy? I would take my mom to chemo, right? I would take my dad to his college appointment.
And then I would be at the office and still write 15, 20,000 personal for the month. And you guys know that’s true because you can see all my awards to back it up, right? You know, Jahima talked about when she went, she gave prep, she went to labor from the office. So did Gabby, right? My team can vouch for that, right? The day that we had Fabian, were in the office, we had an op meeting. They said, hey, you gotta get induced at like 3pm, right? Cause it’s a long process. And we’re like, listen, you don’t understand. We have an op meeting. We can’t do that, right? Like, it will start on Tuesday, but we’re not gonna be there at 3, right? She was like, right. You know what time we Got to the hospital, 11 o’. Clock. We went from the.
You know, people say you need to pack your hospital bag, guys. That’s not true. The hospital gives you everything that you need, right? Dude, went from the office, right? And she was nine months pregnant, which it’s also, AKA super pregnant, right? And went to the hospital, dude, and at 6am Right, she had our first son, right? Isn’t that awesome? Give it up for Gabby, because I want my team to know, dude. Like, I’m tough, right? Look, on Tuesday, okay, I had a super terrible emergency. You guys know one of the things about getting older that people don’t talk about, right? Is, you know, it’s not as bad getting older. What you realize is, as you get older is watching your parents get older, right? We don’t really think about that, right? Like, man, we think about getting older.
But, you know, you’re 30, 40, you’re fine, early 50, right? But when you start seeing your parents get older, I mean, that’s a different type of wisdom that you’re gonna acquire. So Tuesday night, right? Tuesday morning, I’m getting ready, right? 8:15am Ed has a conference call every morning, 8:30 on Zoom. Which I love. Every morning, right? But, you know, and my mom’s blowing up my phone. I’m sorry. She’s like, hey, your dad’s having a heart attack. You gotta come. I’m freaking out. I don’t know what to do, right? I drive all the way to my house, I go there, I rush it to hospital. Like, it was so mess. But the moral of the story, right? We were in the hospital all day. I still showed up to my aunt meeting, and I still did an incredible meeting, you understand?
Because I know that I’m gonna set the standard for what my team does, right? So, like, Coach Brutus said, hey, look, if I don’t show up because of headache, that’s now the standard for my team. So now that gives them permission when they have a headache not to show up to the office. Like, you know, Coach has always said, hey, listen, the only reason that you don’t. That you don’t show up to the office is either, like, you’re dead or in a hospital bed, right? You know, or I wasn’t there in a hospital bed, but I was at home because of knees. So I added a third one. I was like, unless you get knee surgery, right, you can’t show up. But again, those are our standards, right? And. And number three is your identity, guys.
You gotta have an identity of a winner, right? Well, you don’t got to. You get to, right? You gotta want that. You know, you gotta decide who you wanna be first, right? Act like, look, a very cool trick is think of the person you wanna become and then just start acting like that person. Start behaving, start speaking, start, right, doing all the habits that you think that successful people do. And, guys, I wanna share this with you because it’s so good, right? And I read this and I thought it was so powerful. I said, I gotta bring this because this is something that they can take with them, right? And. And it read like this. It says, I asked God to take away. To take a bad habit away. He said, no, it is not for me to take away.
It is for you to give up. I asked God for patience. He said, no, patience comes from hard times. It is earned and not given. I asked God for happiness. God said, no, I give you blessings. Happiness is your choice. I asked God to spare me from pain. He said, no, pain brings you closer to me and away from the world. I asked God, help me grow my spirit. He said, no, you must grow it on your own, you know? And as I read this, like, so many things will happen in your life as you’re building your business. And we could either make decisions or we can make money, but you can’t do both, right? And finally, I asked God, help me love others the way he loves me. And he said, now you get where I’m coming from, right, guys?
You gotta love your team. I’m gonna leave you guys with this, okay? There was a man that was a big complainer. Like, anybody met some people that are a complainer? Like, guys, look, dude, all you gotta know, man, I’m telling you, like, if you think you’re complaining, you just gotta listen to the next guy, right? There’s this guy complaining. He says, like, God, I’m on my. He says, God, I want you to change me. I want you to change my results. But I know the change is not happening because there’s people that are in my way, there’s obstacles in your way. There’s so many things in my way. And God said, you know what? I’m gonna deliver your ish. What do you wish? He says, I want you to set to death the person, the cause, anything that’s causing me to not become successful.
God says, great, I’m gonna have a funeral. It’s gonna be Friday. The only rule I ask is that you tell everybody in town we’re going to line them up. And the only thing I ask you is for you to be the last person to look at the casket. So he announced this big funeral to sound big. Big, big funeral, right? And one by one, right, they got to see the casket. And the thing was happening is as they see the casket, everybody would faint and they would go crazy, right? I mean, these lines, big lines. So finally it was his turn, right? And as soon as he saw the casket, he. Everybody thought he passed away. They rush into the hospital, he wakes up, and he’s grabbing his mother’s hand, right? And the mom says, what did you see?
Says mom, when I opened the casket, there was a mirror. And when I was unconscious, I talked to God. He said, the only person that’s stopping you from not accomplishing your goals and dreams is you guys. Make sure that you’re not stopping yourself from doing all the things you want in life. Thank you guys so much.
