Mr Uday Shah, director of Uday Shah Consultancy, a life coaching firm. PHOTO | FILE
Everything in Uday Shah’s life was going smoothly until he lost his father four years ago. The loss took a toll on him, leaving him depressed. After months of mourning, he was encouraged to seek the services of a life coach to help him overcome grief and move on with life.
His first encounter with a life coach left him wanting to be in a similar position to help others out of the low points in their lives and to realise their full potential.
He enrolled at the Proctor Gallagher Institute in the US for a coaching course that cost him Sh1.6 million ($18,000). The programme was administered by Bob Proctor, a world renowned speaker, and the chairman and co-founder of the Life Success Group of Companies.
The course was offered via a distance-learning module, but Mr Shah was required to frequently fly to the institute for assessment.
On graduation, Mr Shah became a certified life coach and a Thinking Into Results consultant.
He later founded Uday Shah Consulting, a company through which he helps individuals and companies realise their full potential.
The Thinking Into Results programme helps people change their lives by guiding them to do things differently. The 12-session coaching and transformation process helps individuals and companies that are stuck move to the position they want to be through goal-setting and activities that force one out of the comfort zone.
“Basically the programme helps individuals to change their attitude towards self and life and result into productive action, which is dictated by our thoughts,” said the 28-year-old coach.
“It is not rocket science, but making a change in life involves seeing and approaching life’s challenges differently.”
Besides training individuals, Mr Shah does group training where he takes company employees through a tailored programme covering all the 12 sessions. He is also invited to seminars to offer guidance on success.
“The programme starts after figuring out what the company wants to achieve and getting the employees to admit and believe in need for a change and commit to making a difference,” he said.
After identifying the issues facing the company, change of employee habits is encouraged to trigger positive results.
“I like dealing with individuals one on one so that I get to better understand them and take a note of their strengths and weaknesses to help them change where they could be going wrong.
“I have seen great change in companies whose employees have gone through the programme,” he said.
The sessions take three months, with Mr Shah coaching for four hours a day. It costs Sh270,000 ($3,000) per person.
Being able to help people out of tough situations into realising their full potential, Mr Shah says, is one of his greatest joys.
He says he often takes refresher courses and flies to the US twice a year to meet with Mr Proctor. This ensures he is equipped with the necessary skills for the trade given that time and trends keep changing.
When not coaching, Mr Shah works at the Midco Textiles Company, a family business where he is one of the directors.
Since training as a life coach and being able to see life differently, Mr Shah says he now enjoys life more.
His day starts at 4am, when he wakes up to exercise, run through his goal card and plan his day.
He says he has been able to widen his network to include personalities like Bidco Oil Refineries CEO, Vimal Shah, who is his mentor.
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