self help: Self-help guru helps Valley

T. Harv Eker brings personal development camp to town By Reporter Sylvie Paillard spaillard@squamishchief.com For seven years, the extremely popular self-help guru T. Harv Eker has been sharing the beauty of the Squamish Valley with groupies from all over the world. Now those same visitors are helping to keep Squamish pristine. Eker, author of New York Times bestseller The Millionaire Mind, which has been printed in 26 languages, holds numerous self-help camps in the Upper Squamish Valley every summer. “The great thing about Squamish is it’s got natural teachers. The mountain can teach you and the river can teach you much more than I ever could teach you,” said Eker. “I can help interpret the lessons but I can never teach what a mountain can.” The cost of each week-long training camp is approximately $2,000. Participants work up to the camp with an introductory three-day, $1,200 seminar. But many initial participants use the two free tickets included in Eker’s bestsellers to attend seminars, which are held regularly in Vancouver Eker’s latest program, Mind of Steel, Heart of Gold, promotes service as a means of empowering one’s self, so organizers set out to find ways to help the area. “We have manpower of 60-something one week and the next 80 people just waiting to help out all afternoon,” he said. “If there were any trails that needed to be fixed up or any roads needing to be cleaned... anything we could do to help.” John Harvey of the Squamish Trails Society put the volunteers to work on trails in the area, and Edith Tobe of the Squamish River Watershed Society led the group in substantial restoration planting in the estuary off the training dyke at the Windsurf Spit. “They were wonderful,” said Eker of the local leaders. “They even did a little talk about why each of these projects is important and what they do to the river and how the trees grow. It was very effective for our people. Really heart opening.” The visiting group also quickly learned what volunteerism means to locals. “So many of the residents in the area, when they saw what our group was doing, they would come... and we would tell them, and they would start helping!” said Eker. “It was phenomenal.” But not everything about Squamish impresses Eker. While his personal development organization, Peak Potentials Training, holds camps in numerous North American locations, Squamish is the only town that doesn’t offer some a lodge. “I looked for what I perceived was the ultimate spot for these adventure type camps. We love the area. It’s the adventure land of Canada, so we take advantage of it,” he said. “All I can tell you is I wish Squamish had a lodge that we can house 200 people in and feed them properly in kind of a mess hall place, and have staging or at least a conference centre of sorts. There would be a lot of call for it.” But despite the less convenient accommodations of the area, Squamish continues to be Eker’s preferred location, and visitors agree. “First of all the Chief alone is worth its weight in gold. You’re driving up that highway, you see the Chief, what are you supposed to think? Than you’ve got the waterways,” he said. “In this last camp and ones coming up this year I would say you’re talking at least 50 to 60 per cent Americans in those camps. They love Canada, they love Squamish and think it’s real jewel." Peak Potentials is one of the fastest growing and largest personal development seminar companies in the world. Eker said he made the leap between personal and financial development by working through his own struggles. “I wasn’t the excellent father. I wanted to be, that was very, very, very important to me, so I started personal development programs myself... and not let my mind take me out, not get upset so fast, have some patience, a lot more compassion,” he said. “At the same time I noticed my financial situation was doing a lot better, so I started putting those two together... Low and behold I became a millionaire in two-and-a-half years starting from zero.” The organization now boasts approximately 160 employees, and runs over 100 events a year. There are 13 programs in a variety of areas including business, life directions, money and investment, and empowerment type of programming such as Mind of Steel Heart of Gold, Enlightened Warrior and Wizard Training.