Dubai Success Story: How Dalia El Ali swapped finance for fashion design
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00:00Today I'm back with the Dubai success story we all know that we love to reinvent and here is
00:14Dalia who's like I think the queen of the invention she was an investment banker before she became a
00:20designer fashion designer and now an art collector and tell me more about it an entrepreneur who's
00:26in two a lot many businesses yeah sure so it started with of course everyone studied in
00:32university a degree that you thought your career will be in it and I did love investment banking
00:39I was very happy until of course I got married and I got my kids and it was a bit too much pressure
00:45for newborns to have a full-time job especially investment banking is very demanding so me and
00:52my husband decided that I should take a break and go back in a few years and that few years I
00:58decided to take courses with LCF London College of Fashion for fashion design because it's always
01:04been my passion and after that I really enjoyed it so much that I couldn't go back to banking I
01:12created my own line I had my own showroom and design district and that brand was extremely successful
01:21until COVID came and at that year it was very hard to maintain any small business so I decided to downsize
01:29and at that time my name as Dalia Ali as in someone who's born and raised here and knows a lot of people
01:37in the fashion from clientele to sourcers and everything a lot of brands became reaching out
01:44to me to collaborate on different projects and from that I became an entrepreneur and now I actually
01:53have Dalia Ali company which runs different things from hosting events to luxury brands to having my own
02:01warehouse and circle where we exhibit 40 designers it's an exhibition we do it every two months and
02:09that's mainly to support a regional talent after being a regional designer and knowing how hard it is to
02:16be in that field I wanted to give back so that is something that I do you could say quarterly and the third
02:26kind of business that is my brand itself I want to revive it this year so hopefully it will be back in
02:33business soon right but of course art became part of just a hobby so I don't work in art but I love
02:41collecting art and I'm part of art saloon which is the small group from art Dubai that we travel the world
02:50for art so it's it's lovely when you think of investment banking you think of somebody cracking
02:57numbers you know and being in a boardroom etc what made you you know that's a lucrative career that's
03:04easy money I think yeah what would you think why did you decide to do something creative it was a gamble
03:09right yeah of course it was a gamble and it's all I always say till now being your own boss and having
03:15your own business is a big gamble in life you need to have the right support and you need to be
03:21talented enough or keen enough to reach to that goal so it needs a certain personality kind of a
03:30hustler yes for you to really be able to do it because as you said no matter how tiring physically
03:37a corporate job is it's still an eight to six and you get paid so there is not a lot of creativity
03:44there there's not a lot of working harder than of course nothing beats a physical corporate job no
03:52one is putting anyone down it's just a different way of struggle right when you decided to take the
04:01plunge what was your biggest fear honestly I loved the investment banking so I was scared that I'm missing
04:08out a big opportunity which still till now I sometimes I say I wish I didn't leave corporate life
04:13because I like corporate life I like to have a proper business and to have to talk to different
04:20also nationalities and meet different people from different criteria and no one can say creative world
04:30is better than corporate world they give you totally different kind of satisfaction a corporate world gives
04:36you satisfaction on a different level it opens up your brain you use your brain more like you said you use
04:42numbers your research you read more you're up to the world knowledge more and that's really good to
04:50challenge your brain and of course you get paid more creative world is a different kind of world you
04:57can reach to look your dreams and to things that you love and passion but it's a bit harder because you're
05:05your own boss so if you're not working hard you're not gonna get anywhere there's no one paying your salary at the end of the month
05:11right so it's a business that you need to decide what you want from us you want money or you want
05:19creativity or you just want to entertain yourself I would say for me as a mother and I wanted to be part
05:28of my kids life and I knew corporate world will take a lot of that so I took the balance of having my own
05:34business so I work hard for it but at the same time I have the flexibility to travel with my kids stay
05:41with them at home be at home every day by 3 p.m. and that's the best part of my job that I am my own
05:49boss that's love it I like the fact that you're your own boss because there's no price that can be
05:54attached to it right because you have to be motivated which is not easy as well it comes with its pitfalls like
06:01nobody is there telling you listen you need to do this there are deadlines how do you stay motivated
06:05uh so you need to always I think every time you feel a bit demotivated or uncreative try to change
06:15your change your not career try to get a new project something that is totally new for me personally I go on
06:24trips that's how I get inspired to work again every time I feel like cornered and I'm not feeling great or I'm
06:30feeling pressured I just go on a trip and that's how art came art trips were the most ones that made me
06:37feel comfortable and relaxed and inspired right so I come back refueled refreshed um we are very fortunate
06:45here in Dubai that there is a lot of work and every market has its um clientele and audience that's true
06:55so it's just you need to be smart to know what you're good at I have to say the investment banking
07:01background helped me a lot because I do have a business mentality a lot of my friends tell me how
07:06no no no it's just business did help me because I do believe if there is no business what's the point
07:13so I'm not just the creative mind my background of finance helped me a lot to be a business owner
07:20right I'm always wondered can creativity and art be monetized uh I think if you have the right help
07:27or the right background yes that that's that's where I think your degree also comes to you also
07:32have that economics at 100 but that's a lot really and Dubai is one city where I feel people can reinvent
07:40like I have seen influencers just growing out of nowhere during covid for instance they just did videos
07:45at home and now they've become like house alone yes do you think Dubai as a city lends itself reinvention
07:52yes 100 it's a very big city and it's extremely cosmopolitan and it grew so quickly that it gave
08:00so many opportunities to people and they're it's still giving opportunities to people so yes in Dubai you
08:06have a voice more than other places in the world which is amazing um I just think that uh if you're not
08:15um hard working enough you're not gonna get anywhere because there's off competition right so this is
08:21I think what differentiates me from other people or you from other people if you are hard working
08:27you will always get somewhere nothing comes on a silver plate this is not true opportunities come
08:34but you won't be able to really take advantage of the opportunities or make it happen if you're not
08:39hard working right Daniel what was your background like like before you became the designer before
08:45your label began what was your childhood life for instance so I grew up in a lion which is the
08:51small small small town it's like the countryside exactly the zoo was amazing I'm like I loved growing
09:01up there because it was very small we only had two hotels and everyone was a member either in the
09:07hilltonia or the intercon so everyone knew everyone from mothers to babies to siblings so we all were like
09:14playing tennis together basketball together swimming together so the community was lovely and I won't
09:21give it for any other childhood I loved my childhood and then from there I went to university in Lebanon
09:28American University of Beirut where I did investment banking and when I moved back my first job was in
09:33Dubai it was Shoah Capital which was one of the very leading investment houses and since then I've moved around
09:41the UE I lived in Abu Dhabi for a while each I have to say the UE in general is a very giving country and
09:49every place we moved to was amazing oh I enjoyed every stage and every stop you know excellent I love
09:57that do you think women can have it all I look at you you have a beautiful home I'm assuming kids and
10:03husband etc a very full life you have ticked the boxes but yes of course that's what unfortunately
10:10no matter what you say there is nothing perfect like the what you see in social media is is a fake
10:17everyone knows it's a full fake image it's not the reality and because we want to see happy
10:24so no one wants to put sad but of course not you are we are grown-ups and with grown-ups you have
10:30problems and you have stories and sick parents healthy parents the kids the responsibility the
10:38husband the raising kids is very hard nowadays oh yes have you seen adolescents exactly having
10:45teenager boys is very difficult so no it's not always a happy go happy like everyone thinks I
10:53I am I'm very fortunate and lucky that I'm a very smiley person so I always give very positive and
11:00cheerful energy to people around me and I'm always smiling even if I'm a bit down but of course life
11:07is life there is nothing called it's easy we are more fortunate and luckier than a lot of people in
11:13the world and that's we're very thankful for alhamdulillah we have amazing country amazing houses we're healthy
11:20we have our kids and that we're very thankful for but of course like everyone else life challenges
11:27nothing nothing serious alhamdulillah but of course it's just you live life so the global geopolitics
11:33what happened around in the region was really sad and it made people sad and it did all affect us all
11:39so no matter how happy we are but you feel deep inside we all became a bit more real and realized that we
11:46are very lucky and fortunate but at the same time life is too short that's true and catastrophes do come
11:54along the way without you knowing from where so you should always be thankful and try to make the best
12:01of what you have which you have i think galia you'll lead by example as well thank you have reinvented
12:07yourself last question if there's one lesson that you've learned during your reinvention from investment
12:13banker creatively what would it be believe in yourself and always put goals so that you can
12:21achieve achieve them because it will always help you to work harder you know like have a goal in your
12:27mind and everything you do in your life it and reaching that goal is the best feeling in the world
12:33and it will help you to do another goal and another goal right with your fashion designer you said you're going
12:38to start the label so i i snoozed the label for two three years during covert then i revived it a year
12:45ago it's not as active as before but hopefully this year i'm gonna reactivate it fully excellent on that
12:53note here is hoping you continue to reinvent yourself because reinvention is the name of the game yes
12:58thank you so much thank you dahlia and this is how she rolls in a beautiful home thank you