We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brett Burch. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brett below.
Brett, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
As a pilot you have to be resilient to get through flight school. My name is Brett Burch better known as Pilot Burch. The 19 year old African American pilot that overcame a severe stutter to become one of the youngest black pilots in America. At the age of one my mother said I showed signs of stuttering, all throughout grade school I was bullied by other kids because I had a speech impediment. I often resorted to silence. I often thought about flying and how cool it would be to become a pilot. But in order to become a pilot you need to be able to speak English fluently, which I didn’t. I asked my mother to enroll me in speech therapy. This didn’t work. So I had to solve it myself. I would impersonate actors like Matthew McConaughey, and for some reason when I was impersonating, I didn’t stutter. So every night I would sit in front of my mirror and talk for hours. When I finally overcame my stuttering I join Positive Attitude Aviation a flight school in Gaithersburg Maryland. I quickly encountered the next problem, the cost of flight school. That’s when I applied for the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation scholarship for black boys that come from single parent households. I ended up winning the scholarship and Steve Harvey paid for my flight training. After a lot of hard work I was able to get my private pilots license and I’m now working on my commercial pilot license.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As a pilot you have to be resilient to get through flight school. My name is Brett Burch better known as Pilot Burch. The 19 year old African American pilot that overcame a severe stutter to become one of the youngest black pilots in America. At the age of one my mother said I showed signs of stuttering, all throughout grade school I was bullied by other kids because I hade a speech impediment. I often resorted silence. I often thought about flying and how cool it would be to become a pilot. But in order to become a pilot you need to be able to speak English fluently, which I didn’t. I asked my mother to enroll me in speech therapy. This didn’t work. So I had to solve it myself. I would mimic actors like Matthew McConaughey, and for some reason when I was impersonating, I didn’t stutter. So every night I would sit in front of my mirror and talk for hours. When I finally overcame my stuttering I join Positive Attitude Aviation a flight school in Gaithersburg Maryland. I quickly encountered the next problem, the cost of flight school. That’s when I applied for the Steve & Marjorie Harvey Foundation scholarship for black boys that come from single parent households. I ended up winning the scholarship and Steve Harvey paid for my flight training. After a lot of hard work I was able to get my private pilots license and I’m now working on my commercial pilot license.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The Three most important qualities where Hard Work, Having a positive attitude and determination. Advice I would give to others is that having a positive and determined attitude will help you defeat any obstacles on your path to success.
Okay, so before we go, is there anyone you’d like to shoutout for the role they’ve played in helping you develop the essential skills or overcome challenges along the way?
Steve Harvey has been a great mentor to me, we bonded over the fact that we both used to stutter. He has taught me many lessons. The one lesson that stood out to me the most was about how we only have 24 hours in a day 8 of those are spent sleep so make the best use of the remaining 16 hours.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://pilotburch.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pilotburch?igsh=MWd0dWk0YmN4Y3FjZw==
