A small program, run by the person who teaches it.

Hey! I'm Muhammad and I'm the founder of Mind Labs. I am 21 years old and I work as a software consultant.

Yes, I am very young and I'm not going to tell you that my age doesn't matter, I'll tell you what it actually buys you. I finished school recently enough to remember exactly what it felt like; I remember sitting at my desk for 2 hours and getting nothing done, I remember putting my phone face-down next to my notebook, I remember being told to "just focus" by people who had no idea what they were asking for. Your child is not a case study to me. Six years ago they were me, and every other kid I grew up with.

Why Mind Labs Exists

I grew up around students who were really sharp. They were genuinely sharp; funny, quick in conversation, capable, they could take apart an argument or a car engine or video game's mechanics faster than anyone, and yet they were struggling in school. I was struggling.

This is not because we were lazy, this was because no one ever taught us how to actually work. Nobody sat down with us and said: this is how you start when you don't feel like starting, this is how you break down a task into pieces, here's what to do with a page of notes so you still know it in October. This is not a skill us kids are born with. It's a skill someone teaches you, and almost nobody does.

Instead we received the word "lazy"; from a teacher, a report card, an uncle or aunt at a family gathering, and we wore it. By Year 11, most of us believed it. That's the part that gets me, not the marks. The kid who decided, at sixteen, that being the "lazy" one is just who they simply are.

Our parents were doing everything right and were getting nowhere. They were working long hours and still sitting at the kitchen table at 9pm trying to help with maths that isn't taught the same way it was taught to them. So, they would pay for tutoring and most of the time tutoring is homework help. It's an hour and a bit per week where someone re-explains the same content the same way, the homework gets finished, and nothing about the student changes. The next term starts from zero again.

There was a second gap too, and this one is closer to home. A lot of the kids I grew up with were living as two people. One version at school, another at home. Faith on one side, ambition on the other, quietly certain that at some point they would have to pick one. Nobody ever sat us down and showed us that the two aren't in competition. Nobody was doing that, so it didn't get done.

Mind Labs exists because I got tired of watching capable kids getting written off for a problem that is completely fixable. I struggled a lot during school and I want to help every other kid overcome that hurdle with proper support and a community rather than doing it alone like me. Every skill and technique I am currently learning and applying right now to live an organised, successful life, I teach it to other kids so that they don't have to learn it by themselves and can apply these skills earlier in life so that they can live a fulfilling life as well as have a prosperous career that far surpasses my own. I am growing and learning, and I am sharing the lessons I learn with everyone along the way.

What I Actually Believe

This is built on Islamic foundations, and that shows up in behaviour, not branding.
Ihsan; you do the work properly because God sees it, whether or not a parent is watching or a review is coming. Amanah; someone's child is a trust, and so is their money. If a family asks for a refund, they get it. Immediately, with no negotiation and no attempt to talk them around. I don't want money from people who don't want to give it. Families of every background are welcome here, and always will be. The values are mine; the door is open.

Character Before Grades. Grades are a by-product of a person. Change the person and the marks follow, and they keep following long after the eight weeks are over. Do it the other way around; chase the mark, cram, get the B, learn nothing, and you'll be back next term.

Fall In Love With The Process. Alysa Liu was the youngest national figure skating champion in American history at thirteen. She quit at sixteen because she was miserable. She came back two years later, not for the medal but for the thing itself, and won a World Championship as well as Olympic Gold. Craft over trophy. Every student in this program gets ninety minutes on that idea and then applies it to whatever they love: football, cooking, art, editing, coding, because it's the single mindset shift that changes the most.

What Makes This Different

Five students. Not thirty, not eight. Five, in person, for eight weeks; because you cannot rebuild how someone studies, thinks, and sees themselves in a room where the coach doesn't know their name.

This isn't tutoring. Every session runs an accountability check-in, targeted academic work aimed at the specific gaps we found in a diagnostic, a study skill practised live, a mindset and identity block, one habit installed, and a planning block where students set their own tasks as well as commit to them in front of the group. Sixteen sessions. Parents get a written report within an hour of every session, so nobody is ever wondering whether it's working.

I'd rather show you than tell you. Every outcome gets documented: grades, habits, independence. If a student's grades haven't improved and they aren't noticeably more organised and independent after eight weeks, I coach them for free until they are.

What I'm Building Towards

Right now: five students, one room, results I can prove.

Then more cohorts, more coaches; paid above market, because the person in front of your child should have no reason to be anywhere else.

Long term, I want a curriculum that stands up anywhere in the world and a free app that puts it in the hands of students who could never afford a personalised in person program like this one. What a kid learns about how to work, and who they are while doing it, shouldn't come down to a postcode.