Get inspired by a Burhan Cyclewala famously known as Life Coach Burhan, who gained less education from school and college but is teaching himself what he thinks is very necessary in life, a person who through his videos is trying to add value to the lives of people.
Interview with Life Coach Burhan
Something personal with Burhan
Arjun: Burhan, tell us something about you as I want people to know about your story? Where do you come from and what you studied and where and how all this journey as a life coach started?
Life-story of Burhan Cyclewala
Burhan: Hey Arjun, First of all, thank you for featuring me on your website. I will try my best to make sure people visiting here will gain some kind of value from this interview.
Hello, everyone, I am Burhanuddin Cyclewala AKA Coach Burhan. I belong from Burhanpur (MP) a city known for its historical monuments.
Coming to the next question which is basically about my formal education. I would like to answer this in an unorthodox way, breaking the current notions about the value of Formal education. “I am the least Formally Educated person you might ever know but I am the most Self-educated person you may ever know.”
I love calling myself an autodidact. I shape my own education, I learn only the things I want to teach myself.
I have been researching and studying human psychology for about 3 years now. And never mind about the grammar xD.
My journey of becoming a Life Coach is quite accidental. I love learning new things every day. About 3 years ago I was so inspired by some books and online mentors that their teachings got me some real-life results.
There’s a saying that when you learn you might forget but when you teach, the memorisation of something is far better so I created a website named as smabmindset.com but it wasn’t my craft so I switched to videos and started teaching people the ideas I learned and implemented and how it changed my life.
Sooner or later people got some value from the content and the boat was moving. This is how it began.
Burhan on Entrepreneurship
Arjun: Great story Burhan. Burhan, tell me when did you decided that you want to become an entrepreneur?
Burhan: From an early age when Entrepreneurship wasn’t recognised as a cool thing and even I didn’t know much about the word Entrepreneur as I was already thriving for that life.
People use to ask me what do you want to become in the future, I used to answer it innocently that I want to be a business tycoon and it’s something inside me from a very long time so later on when I got to know about the word entrepreneur I switched it from Business Tycoon to Entrepreneur.
The decision was very clear from the beginning of my career because I learned that there’s no limit when you are becoming your own boss. But it’s a path of responsibilities, that’s the reason very few succeed and I am still thriving.
Something about Social Media
Arjun: You are aware of the power of social media, as you yourself have experienced that. A video on Tik Tok going viral like anything. How do you see, social media as a resource for you and some tips you would like to give to the readers to implement to build their presence online.
Burhan: The biggest mistake most people make on Social Media is they think of it in terms of numbers. A million views and a few hundred views. Even if 100 people are watching your video and 40 of them likes it. God damn! 40 people fill a room!
Provide them with the best value you can. I did the same, for 2 years I had a few couples of views, hardly 5 videos got more than 5k views. Same happened when I started on Tiktok. I created different accounts and I am posting for about 8 months now.
3 months ago a few of my videos went viral and it completely changed the game. Now I have plenty of videos crossing a Million views but it isn’t accidental especially if you are in a Self Improvement Niche. One thing should always remain common and that is providing the best value.
Currently, I am looking at social media as a platform to spread my words, there are probably some future Business plans. Social Media has now become a tool for me to do what I love doing.
I would suggest not to make money and fame your motivation behind building an online presence or becoming an influencer, you will be crushed by reality.
Getting 100 views for 2 years on each video and still continuing it isn’t backed up by the motivation of earning money, there should be some higher reason and vision of yours. Always be clear with it.
Secondly, share content which comes easy for you, just as Life Coaching is easy for me because I have been learning and implementing it for years now. The kind of content which works is ‘Truth’ which most people don’t consider.
They try to be someone else and no matter how hard they try it’s never gonna work. Be yourself, let me tell you how to do it.
Whenever you are recording a video or writing a piece of content don’t think of it as millions of people are going to watch it. Just think of one person and you are telling them the truth about yourself or what you experienced.
Mark my words you will gain a lot of traction because your biggest advantage is you. Nobody can be YOU, so no one can copy you and there’s nobody like you. Isn’t it great?
Life coach Burhan define success
Arjun: Success has a different meaning for everyone. How does Burhanuddin Cyclewala define success for him?
Burhan: For me, success is being able to do what I want to do at any stage of my life, basically, freedom is the word for it. Once I am free from any kinds of external duties which most people are entangled in throughout their lives.
I can be whoever I want to be whatever I choose to be and whenever I want to be, this is the whole context of my actions but the content is much deeper.
Lastly, if you want me to define success in one word. For me, it is being able to Improve myself throughout my life and always be the better version of who I was yesterday. Imagine a person constantly improving every day. He/She might experience a new self in every couple of months.
Coach Burhan on Hustle
Arjun: Tell the readers, how hustling hard today can create a better tomorrow for them. You and many others are hustling right now, what is your take on this?
Burhan: Each day if I don’t hustle, whatever I said above will remain words and nothing else. Tie yourself from a goal higher than you and then become that. Today if you can’t speak properly in front of people, look, now you ‘ve got a goal to tie yourself with. Hustle every day and learn to be a fluent speaker.
Isn’t this an awesome thing? You can be whatever you want to be if you are just willing to hustle each and every day. Cheers to all those hustling each and every day to crush whatever goals they created for themselves. Hustling today will make your Life easier tomorrow and believe me you will be proud of yourself!
Some great habits to follow
Arjun: What is that one habit, which you think is very important for you to excel in life?
Burhan: One habit or you can say a mindset which helped me throughout my journey and will keep helping me is ‘Showing Up Again And Again.’ We all know life is not easy and straight.
Today you are focused, tomorrow something happens and it takes away all your focus but your ability to show up again and again after failures and distraction is number one quality of success. At the end of the day, you should return to your dreams and aspirations even after being bashed by Life.
You are creating content, everything is going smooth and suddenly your partner decides to leave you. 2 days 3 days a week boom! You are back to work again! This mindset has brought me wherever I am today and will keep helping me.
Coach Burhan on Limiting Beliefs
Arjun: Burhan, you are aware that people restrict themselves to take action just because of the limiting beliefs they have. Some tips you want to give to clear the limiting beliefs that people have?
Burhan: True, one of the biggest reasons why people are not doing better in life is because of their limiting beliefs. I have recently posted a video regarding this where I shared a quick technique to break your limiting beliefs.
Most people don’t even know that they are stuck in life because of their limiting beliefs.
The number one thing you need to do is figure out what’s your limiting belief, for example, most people have this limiting belief that ‘I am not good enough.’
Now the fun fact about limiting beliefs is it’s nothing except a lie which if you try to confront won’t stay for a long time. To break this limiting belief, bring it on paper, write a few details about what’s limiting you and why you are not good enough.
Research how you can do it better, find ways and start taking actions as you proceed. The limiting belief will disappear and in fact that limiting belief can turn into an empowering one for you.
Remember the rule, confront it by writing it down on a piece of paper with all the details and how to overcome it, next is action and you will break it! This is the quickest tip I can give here about clearing limiting beliefs.
On Importance of Personal Brand
Arjun: What is the importance of a Personal Brand today and how powerful it can be in this current era?
Burhan: A personal brand has a lot to do with your success, especially if you want to win a bigger game.
People nowadays don’t buy your products or services they buy you and your story. It’s quite interesting in this era you can start from scratch with 0 followers, no audience to a successful personal brand in just 18 months!
Now don’t quote me on the time but it actually depends on you and the amount of effort you are willing to give. Sometimes it also depends on external situations.
You may be able to build it in 6 months or it can even take you 5 years, but that doesn’t change anything. For everyone it’s different but it’s something powerful and can take you to places in life.
I would recommend every person aspiring to build a personal brand to leverage this time and not waste it.
Life Coach Burhan Cyclewala on Time-Management
Arjun: How do you manage your time and make sure you make it highly productive. ( Asking this as many people are wasting their time in this lockdown period)
Burhan: The truth is you cannot fix anyone until they want to, it’s sad how most people will only waste their time in this lockdown period. We cannot do anything about them until they realise life is more than living the average.
Personally I do not have to think much about managing my time, it’s inculcated in my system. I have set priorities and I am so involved with those priorities that if I waste more than 30 mins doing something useless my mind starts resisting it.
I didn’t think of time management. I just associated pain and failure with wasting my time. Now my mind knows it very well. You read it true my mind resists me from wasting my time while you might have heard most people saying that my mind distracts me.
Arjun: No man can be successful without challenges. What are the challenges you faced in your journey to where you are? I am asking this question in particular, to inspire the readers how you tackled difficulties and conquered them
Burhan: One of the biggest challenges I faced was external situations which were not related to my goals and I couldn’t ignore them too. As I said earlier no matter how many situations arise if you are willing to show up again and again for what you have decided to achieve then nobody can stop you from that.
I have faced many small challenges initially which I laugh about today and they were like getting blank in front of the camera, thinking too much that will people like my content or not and even other’s opinions. Readers, these things slow downs your progress.
I would recommend you to cut this crap and just move forward like you never had these issues in your life. Don’t focus too much on what others will think or how you will be perceived these were few of my early stages challenges and I know most people go through it.
Favourite books of Life Coach Burhan
Arjun: You must be reading a lot and a lot of books. Tell me some of your favourite books and what particular you liked in that book.
Burhan: These books have really helped me fertile my mindset and get initial steps to move forward in Life:
- The power of Habit By Charles Duhigg
It takes a lot of efforts for a person to move towards his or her success but this book taught me a way which made it effortless. This book shares the secrets of the power of habits and also how to build it.
- Deep Work By Cal Newport
We are born in the greatest Era but also an era of most distracted and mindless people. This book has some really amazing mindset building points and steps to gain that mindfulness and focus again.
- Rich Dad Poor Dad By Robert Kiyosaki
Many of you might have read this book, this book is enough to break your myths about Career, Money and financial freedom in Life. I wish they could teach all of this in school.
- Start with Why By Simon Sinek
We all know what we do and how we do it, but we forget the ‘WHY’ and all the success comes from the ‘Why’. This book taught me the secrets of some highly successful companies like Apple and Nike. Also about placing your personal brand or your products or services correctly.
These are few; the list is too long I would someday share it on all my social media platforms.
On Value’s and Lessons
Arjun: This is my favourite question which I ask everyone I interview. What do you think is one core value or personality trait in you that has brought you where you are today?
Burhan: One of my core values is to ‘Make The World A Better Place For Everyone.’ I want to create an overwhelmingly positive impact on the world. I always question myself if whatever I am doing is creating an impact on others and on my own self. This helps me move forward with clarity.
Arjun: What were some of the biggest lessons that have impacted or changed the way that you work? What was the lesson, and what was it like before and after?
Burhan: Balancing work with other stuff and avoiding burnout are 2 big lessons I have learned so far. I used to work really hard, 14-15 hours a day.
That was also because I was filled with energy to achieve my goals and didn’t taste failures yet. At the beginning of my journey, I left everything for my work which led to 2 things.
One, burnouts and second the other things in my life started to fall apart and then I had to leave my work and fix them again. I was a mess but then I learned balance is important.
Now I know that there will be days I can work 16 hours straight and then there will also be days when I might just get 1-2 hours to work and I am totally okay with it.
When you just keep on working other things start to fall apart and then it takes days to fix them so it’s better to maintain a balance.
Burhan on importance of a mentor
Arjun: As a life coach you understand the importance of having a mentor, tell us why a mentor is so much required in life.
Burhan: Mentors are really crucial for making it big. For example, you want to become an entrepreneur but you don’t have any clue how to start but anyway you do it and start the trial and error process. It will take you 200 years to become successful.
A mentor removes that gap and teaches you what exactly you need to do in order to move forward. Also, it’s an add on if the mentor is in your contact and they show you some Tough Love. Which means being rough for the sake of your growth.
Arjun: Who has been your biggest inspiration?
Burhan: I will tell you straight, he is my online mentor and I wish to meet him soon. I used to consume a lot of his content, he ignited the spark in me but now I have a little different path so I am not actively learning from him but he is my inspiration anyway. He is none other than Patrick Bet David. The founder of PHP Agency and the host of Valuetainment show.
Something he is good at
Arjun: What’s something you are really good at, that few people know about or that you are not known for?
Burhan: Taking this question as a personal one, I love sports and I am an International player at 2 sports, one is Rollers Skating and the other one is an indoor sport, Table Soccer.
Sports have helped me build discipline and sincerity towards achieving goals and growing in Life. I don’t play much of it now but I thank my younger self for this. I will continue playing sports very soon again in my Life.
Burhan Cyclewala on adding value
Arjun: You understand that what you are doing is starting to make a difference (let it be anything related to the tips and strategies you give on mindset, habits, etc). How do you feel knowing that what you are doing is making someone’s life better?
Burhan: Everyone is trying to extract some kind of ecstasy from their lives and for me, these are the moments of joy. My whole purpose of doing all this is helping people to grow. They say it’s easy to push someone in a pothole but nobility is when you pull out someone from that hole they are stuck in.
Arjun: That was some great viewpoint Burhan. Share some experience, when someone messaged you that what you are doing has created a massive impact in their life. I am sure many people, will be inspired by this thing?
Burhan: My Instagram DM section is full with 100s of messages people send me about how my advice has brought a paradigm shift in their lives. I wish I could reply to each one of them and clarify their doubts personally. It’s the best feeling in the world.
Arjun: You are very young and yet very mature. One advice that you want to give to current teen generation to do what they are passionate about?
Burhan: I am very sad with the reality, that most teenagers are so energetic and pure and like an empty vessel which can be filled with the most beautiful things in the world.
Unfortunately, Bollywood, movies and cinema have wired them into believing that everything is just romantic relationships in your life. When the movies itself doesn’t have a common definition of these things.
Already a lot is going inside of our bodies in this period and movies work as spices. Their whole teenage and for most people their whole 20s is spent in chasing love and relationships and none of this stays later in their lives, then they have to cover up that career loss in their 30s when they could have actually got settled with a beautiful house and a mature partner for life by working hard enough in their 20s.
Well, this is the case for most people. I would advise the readers to follow anything you are passionate about. As a teenager, if you try plenty of things you can get clear in life in your early or mid-20s and crush it by the early 30s. This is the pattern for most people who got successful at an early age.
It was a really great time answering this interview, the perfect set of questions for readers. I hope everyone gained some kind of value from this. All the best to everyone!
Arjun: Thanks Burhan, I hope the people reading this liked the Interview. They can also check out other interviews as well