Eric Edmeades

Eric Edmeades (born on 18 March 1970 in Pretoria, South Africa) is a social entrepreneur, professional speaker and philanthropist.

Opposed to apartheid, his parents moved to Canada where Edmeades would spend most of his youth. When Edmeades' parents separated, later divorced, they moved to opposite ends of Canada so Edmeades and his brother, Nik Edmiidz, grew up commuting from Halifax to Vancouver for most of their teen years. Edmeades attended Saint John’s School of Alberta and did not attend university until his 30s when he studied archaeology at University of Bristol, England. Edmeades was married in 1995, separated in 1999 and then divorced. He is the father of Daniel Thomas Edmeades, born 19 December 1997.

Business Life
Edmeades’ first job was for Petro-Canada at a full-services filling station in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Following an industrial accident that resulted in severe burns to and the near loss of his right hand, Edmeades moved on to a sales role working for a Kirby Vacuum distributor, also in Halifax. Edmeades then transferred to, and assisted in the establishment of, a Kirby sales and service centre in Victoria, British Columbia.

Inspired, during his sales career, by Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Anthony Robbins, Edmeades pioneered internet publishing when he founded, in 1994, the Success Express Journal, the first internet-based e-zine for business and personal development and reached over 15,000 people in 70 countries.

After 3 years of door-to-door sales work with Kirby, and in his early 20’s, Edmeades joined Ryzex, as their first full-time employee. Over the next 6 years Edmeades would assit in the development of the company into a multi-national remarketer of barcode, data capture and wireless networking equipment with 100+ employees in 4 countries.

Following a disagreement over shares, Edmeades resigned his position at Ryzex and started a competitive company, ITR. (Originally known as TTL until a name-change in 2003). Although the business was started in, and initially run from Edmeades’ living room, The ITR Group would go on to establish itself as a leading maintainer of mobile computing equipment and provider of wireless networking services to many of Europe’s major retail and logistics companies.

In 2006 Edmeades sold his majority shareholding in The ITR Group to private buyers and spent 18 months travelling around the world, blogging and speaking on business and personal development. He flew around the world three times during this period and spent much of his time in Bali, Indonesia, where he now resides for a large part of the year.

Edmeades became interested in NLP in his early 20’s and was certified as a Master Practitioner of NLP before studying with Dr Richard Bandler, a co-founder of NLP, who certified him as a Specialist Trainer.

Edmeades now offers international business consulting, keynote speaking, and life coaching.

Edmeades is also an avid wildlife photographer.

Seminars and Quotes
In 1994, Edmeades wrote, in The Success Express Journal that:

“The only true measure of success is the number of days that a person is truly happy.”

Edmeades used that concept to create the One Life Workshop, an annual January seminar that he claims will guarantee that the following year will be your best ever.

Edmeades created and facilitates the NLP Self Practitioner programme and plans to release a book by the same title in 2007. Often critical of the current NLP education model, Edmeades created the Self Practitioner program to teach people how to use the tools and principles of NLP  in their own lives and he refuses to run NLP certification programmes.

Edmeades also created Adventure Seminars, a combination, he says, of experience and education. In early 2007, at the second See You at the Top program, Edmeades lead an expedition of 19 people up Kilimanjaro. 76% of the group, more than twice the average number, reached the summit. Edmeades credits the success on the techniques he teaches for mental toughness including, NLP, meditation and hypnosis.

Edmeades speaks and runs seminars in many countries and is a member and ambassador for the XL Foundation.

Edmeades is the author of the online book, The Human Diet, and advocates a diet including only foods from the Paleolithic. One of Edmeades’ Adventure Seminars, Walking with the Bushman, puts his clients in the African bush so that, he says, they can experience what life was like for most of human history.

Criticism
Edmeades has been criticised for running adventure seminars with critics claiming that he is placing people in danger by taking them to extreme locations and undertaking exercises, which he refers to as ‘metaphors for life’, such as climbing Kilimanjaro, canoeing in hippo and crocodile infested waters, rock climbing, abseiling and long term fasting.

Philanthropy
On 27 May 2006 Edmeades was vacationing in Bali, Indonesia when an earthquake, estimated by the USGS as having a magnitude of of Mw 6.3, struck Jogjakarta killing as many as 5000 people. Edmeades rented a 4x4, filled it with food, water and medical supplies and drove for fore days to the earthquake site to provide relief.

This experience had a profound effect on Edmeades, who now undertakes philanthropic projects on a regular basis including founding the Build a School initiative and acting as a International Advisor for Global Angels, an international children's charity founded by Molly Bedingfield mother of pop musician and Global Angels's Executive Director, Daniel Bedingfield.

Edmeades also encourages all of his clients to participate in philanthropic endeavours by including charitable projects in all of his Adventure Seminars. In February 2007 his seminar participants established a school in Eselalei, Tanzania near Lake Manyara.

Media, Blog and Internet References
Quotes and Blog References


 * Quotations Nation
 * The Quotations Page -- a directory of notable quotations
 * Families Online Magazine
 * Memorable-Quotes.com
 * Quotatio - Notable Quotes
 * MakingITClear
 * World Famous Quotes
 * MotivateUS.com
 * Ecademy Reference
 * HalfValue.com Discusses Adventure Seminars
 * Dave Rogers Blogs the Asia Pacific Speakers Summit
 * NLP Connections Review
 * SarahSearchforSuccess.com Review
 * AllPoetry.com - Favorite Quotes

Interviews


 * The Damien Senn Interview

Memberships / Philanthropy


 * Global Angels International Advisory Board

Publications
The Success Express Journal, Editor and Writer, (1994-1997) What do Uthink (e-book, circa 1996) The NLP Self Practitioner (2007) Living Rich (2007) The Human Diet (Web) (2004 - 2007)

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