hey this is Damon Cart from NLP gym
this is a bit of a different kind of
video than I normally do my mentor Steve
Andreas passed away a few days ago Steve
was in my opinion the quintessential NLP
er he I think knew NLP better than the
founders and the reason why I can say
that is you know it was almost like he
lived a life that was destined for NLP
he was mentored by Abraham Maslow who
did the hierarchy of needs and he's also
credited with being the father of the
human potential movement or one of the
fathers of the human potential movement
and then Steve went on to study just all
therapy which was how kind of how I know
he got started Fritz Perls well rather
rich Richard Bandler modelled fritz
perls and that's when they brought in
John Grinder to do the linguistic part
and they did that all based on videos
that Fritz Perls had done and they had
never actually met for it's perilous but
Steve Andrus had actually learned just
all therapy from Fritz Perls Steve would
later going to of course study with been
learned render and learn NLP and then he
went also to study with Virginia Satir
and also spent some time with Milton
Erickson so of the NLPers he's perhaps
the only one who actually studied with
all three of the NLP models which was
how Richard Bandler and John grinder
created NLP Steve went on to create
along with Connirae Andreas his wife to
me what this would what is the most
complete explanations and processes of
NLP of course they learned a lot from
been learned render but they also
created their own models Steve came into
my life serendipitously I met Connirae
and raised his wife I was facilitating
a training that she was a part of and we
just really hit it off and she was she's
a she's an amazing person we had a we
had a great time she answered so many
questions that I threw at her and
and she went back to Colorado and I
thought I'd love to see her again
sometime and just kind of let that go
and then suddenly it's about a month
after that I got an email from Steve
saying that Connie Rae I had said good
things about me and he wanted to know
more about me he was curious and he
wanted to see if he could help out
someone who was helping coming and I
just thought that I hit the NLP lottery
we started talking we started doing
Skype calls we started emailing back and
forth
I couldn't he couldn't keep up with my
questions after a while and I was in a
really interesting place in my life
because I just separated from my wife I
was scared because I was leaving the
house where my were moving out of the
house where my kids lived and it was the
first time in my life I was gonna not
live in the same house as my kids I
wasn't going very far just a few miles
but this scared me and I really hit a
plateau in NLP and Steve helped me with
all of those things I became intrigued
and with his work and really started to
delve into it deeply especially his
self-concept model to me it's the best
thing that's coming out of you know P
into me you know he's the best thing
that's come out of self-help and
personal development he encouraged me to
teach it and at the time I thought it
was just too big it was too amazing it
was too magical for me to teach and I
even told him that I was like well I
don't I don't know if I can do this and
he said well why not you you understand
it better than anybody else and nobody
else is teaching it I'm retired and then
just came to a place eventually that I
realized I had to teach this because
people people needed this people need
this it's it's the most transformational
model that I've ever come across
he never asked me for anything in return
never asked me for anything he helped me
so much back in December
I asked his son mark to come to Santa
Cruz and teach one of the modules of my
practitioner training and of course Mark
said yes and he can't he flew in and we
got to talking and he said I don't you
probably got my dad's email but I just
want to make sure you know that he's not
doing well
and he doesn't think he's even going to
be around for much longer
and this hit me pretty deeply I knew he
was up in age but I didn't know it was
his health was declining that bad so I
sent an email to Steve and checked in
with them and he confirmed that yeah he
didn't think he had much longer and this
was devastating because I mean I know
that you know people aren't gonna be
around forever but we do this stupid
thing where we start to think we take
them for granted and we think that they
will at the urging of my friend Lulu she
she said you know I should really go see
him and I didn't want to impose knowing
where he was you know in those last few
months of life but it she helped me help
push me to to ask and I did and Steve
said sure yeah come on out he said don't
expect much from me because I don't have
much energy but yeah come on out and I
got to hang out with Mark who I've
become good friends with and Connie ray
who I hadn't seen in a while
and they had also just given me
permission to turn transforming yourself
into an online training so I was very
grateful for that
well that's guy call I could see that
Steve was not doing well but I got to
meet him we got to talk we got to do the
interviews that I've put out on YouTube
and Facebook
most importantly I got to pay my
respects to him in person and it was
really hard really really hard to do
that and then when I got the news a few
days ago even though I knew this was
coming I had even emailed them two weeks
ago just telling him that I hope me
passing on his work
Karim on his work would gave him some
satisfaction and he just thanked me for
that and that was pretty much it did and
then I got the news a few days ago and
as much as I was prepared for this and
even though in a lot of ways I don't
really feel like I knew him that well or
had that much of a personal connection
with him that's kind of a strange thing
I had a definitely a connection I think
what why he touched me so deeply is
because he took the time and he was so
kind and generous with this time to
teach me and to make sure that I
understood and he was so patient with me
there are a few things that touch me
there are a few things that touched me
so deeply when someone so selflessly
gives to others and I would have gladly
paid him I would have gladly done
anything for him that he had asked me to
do but he never asked me for anything he
just gave it and gave even when I told
him it was important reciprocity was
very important to me meaning I wanted to
feel like I was giving something back
and he would often say pay it forward
I'm just so incredibly touched by that
so even though I knew he wasn't gonna be
with us for much longer and even though
I wouldn't even call this close personal
friends though we we did share a lot of
a lot of things that maybe you know you
wouldn't share with just anybody
I certainly shared a lot of my personal
life with him and and he was very good
about giving good advice without being
judgmental and his losses felt in the
NLP world for sure because I would say
not only was he the quintessential
mental peer he was one of the most
underrated you know peers his work was
one of the most is probably more
underrated than any other work in NLP
because it is so brilliant and he was
not a very good self promoter and he
didn't care about that too much it
seemed like he cared only enough to make
a comfortable living beyond that it was
not about the money it was about the
work we've lost for sure one of the best
minds in NLP they'll never be another
one like him so this is my tribute to
Steve andreas of course he I will miss
him and I know how much this family will
miss him as well I feel more compelled
than ever to continue to explore his
work and share it with as many people as
I possibly can there's a lot of people
out there who are trying to create new
NLP models and new NLP technology and
that's that's great what we often
overlook though is what's already there
and what's being not nobody wouldn't
nobody's paying attention to and Steve's
work
I wouldn't say nobody's paying attention
to it but not enough people are paying
attention to it because a lot of what
people are trying to do now it's already
been created and he created it already
and we only have to look for what's
already there and honey ray his wife is
still creating rest in peace Steve I
know you didn't believe in God
and neither do i but I love the idea
that maybe someday I'll meet him again
maybe someday we'll we'll hang out and
talk about you know tea I'm really lucky
that while he was still alive that I was
able to say my goodbyes and say my
appreciations and my thank-yous and
offer my gratitude and that's what I'm
really filled with right now Steve used
to always say to me there's of all the
things we can have we can always have
too much of anything except one thing
and that's gratitude you can you can't
there's no such thing as having too much
gratitude he would tell me it would also
say that gratitude is good for both the
giver and the receiver and that's what I
feel like I'm left with most with Steve
there is a sorrow and there's a deep
sense of loss but more than anything I
have gratitude
I have gratitude for his generosity for
everything he gave me for what he means
to me in my life so thank you Steve you
will always have my gratitude