Dubai: When Pakistani national Urooba Yousuf first arrived in Dubai in 2022, she wasn’t prepared for the energy and pace of the city.Her daughter was four at the time, and as her primary guardian, Yousuf was struggling to become financially independent. Just trying to establish herself in a city far from everything she’d ever known was a “huge risk” for her.She said: “When I first came to Dubai… I sold my assets, including my car, and invested all of my savings in building a new life and career here.”But once she arrived, she felt like a duck out of water. She wasn’t ready. “At that time, I was still learning about the job market and professional environment here. I started applying for jobs and received some good opportunities, but I was also struggling to balance my responsibilities as a mother, with the demands of building my career,” she said.The job offers she received weren’t all above board – there were uncertainties around visa and work permit arrangements. Yousuf didn’t want to make a decision under pressure. She wanted her life in Dubai to be sustainable and stress-free.So, Yousuf made the difficult decision to return to Pakistan. She said: “I had almost nothing left – only my ambition and determination. I remember arriving [in Pakistan] with less than Dh300. But on the same day, I went to the market, bought a laptop, and started working again on my skills, my goals, and my future.”She created a roadmap for herself and worked towards strengthening her digital marketing skills, and gaining the kind of hands-on experience that the Dubai job market demanded.As time passed, Yousuf secured a remote position with a well-established US company, while living in Pakistan. She also worked on part-time and project-based assignments with UAE-based companies. She polished her skills, grew more confident, and worked to create a CV that would stand out when she applied for jobs in Dubai.In December 2024, it was time for take two.When she returned to the emirate, Yousuf was a completely different person.She said: “I wasn't coming back simply to look for a job. I was coming back ready to compete, contribute, and grow.”Today, Yousuf’s Dubai-it philosophy – of working hard and achieving excellence in record time – has seen her transform into a performance marketing manager with digital marketing experience across e-commerce, real estate, and business-to-business technology. Her eight-year-old daughter is thriving, and Yousuf is continuing to invest in herself and climb the ladder professionally.Taking risks and dreaming bigYousuf said being in Dubai has changed her definition of what is possible. Picture credit: SuppliedLooking back now, she said she is amazed by her own courage and the risks she took to make such a big move to Dubai – twice. The biggest challenge wasn’t just moving her life and her daughter here, it was managing everything on her own.Yousuf said: “I came here alone and had to figure everything out by myself. I had to find daycare for my daughter. For the first time, I had to leave her without my family around me and manage the responsibility on my own. At the same time, I was going from one interview to another, sometimes attending multiple interviews in a single day. I walked through unfamiliar streets, followed maps on my phone, asked strangers for directions, and tried to understand a completely new city.”She admitted that it was a difficult time, “sometimes overwhelming, but it was also a wonderful experience. It taught me independence, courage, and resilience in ways I could never have learned otherwise.”Striving for moreBut Yousuf has had years of experience with nurturing courage and resilience.She was born and raised in Khuda Ki Basti, a low-income housing project in Lahore, Pakistan, and studied at The Citizens Foundation (TCF), a nonprofit organisation-run school that provides quality education to children from underserved communities.The eldest of five, she was the only girl child in her family, which was led by her father, a daily-wage worker, and her mother, who was a teacher. Yousuf said: “Together, they spent their lives doing everything they could to give their children an education and opportunities they themselves did not have.”This was easier said than done, however, in a community where girls’ education was not considered a priority. Yousuf said: “Several of my female cousins were unable to continue their education beyond grade 10. But my parents never stopped me. They supported me and continued to believe in my education. I became the first girl in my extended family to graduate from university and continue towards higher education.”A bright student, Yousuf received numerous scholarships, and completed both her Bachelor’s and Master's degrees at the University of Karachi.She said her journey as a student mirrored her journey to Dubai: “There were moments when I had very little money. There were moments when I had to start again. And there were moments when I took risks without knowing exactly what would happen next.”Looking back now, at age 35, she realises that her grit and perseverance taught her something important – how to create opportunities when they aren’t handed to you.Dubai-it journeyFor Yousuf, her daughter is at the heart of every decision she makes. Picture credit: SuppliedShe carries those lessons into her professional life in Dubai, even today. Yousuf said: “People often talk about entrepreneurship and ambition as if it's a very glamorous journey. It isn't. There are periods when you are carrying financial, professional and personal responsibilities at the same time, and nobody really sees what happens behind the scenes.”Add being a mother to the mix, and it makes the challenge even more real.For Yousuf, her daughter is at the heart of every decision she makes. She said: “I think about what I am actually trying to build. I don't want my daughter to grow up believing that difficult circumstances should decide what she can become. That has become one of my biggest motivations.”Being in Dubai has also changed Yousuf’s definition of what is possible.She said: “Dubai gave me permission to think bigger… because you constantly see people here reinventing themselves. For me personally, being a mother, while building a career, has meant learning not to divide myself into two people. Yes, I'm a mother. But I'm also ambitious. I'm a professional. I'm a woman who wants financial independence. I don't believe these things have to cancel each other out.”Now that she has put down roots in the city, she is ready to branch out. Yousuf calls her Dubai life the season of “spring” for her career.She said: “For many years I was focused on learning marketing and becoming technically good at what I do. Now, I'm much more interested in building systems. The future I see for myself is bigger than simply running campaigns. I want to combine marketing, technology, artificial intelligence, automation and strategy to help businesses operate differently.”What better place to do it than in Dubai, where the city is at the crossroads of business development and futuristic technology?A look behind the curtainAs for her personal life, Yousuf has a much more nuanced goal, and it circles back to her daughter. She said: “I want my daughter to understand that independence is powerful. I want her to know how important it is to have skills, to be able to earn, to make decisions for yourself and to never believe that you need someone's permission to have ambition.”But she said she also wants her child to see the other side of ambition: “Success isn't just money or a title. It's integrity. It's keeping your word. It's being someone people can trust. It's being able to look at yourself after a difficult day and know that you didn’t compromise who you are to get ahead. If she learns those things simply by watching me, then everything I've worked through will have been worth it.”As someone who has fought for every inch she has moved forward in life, Yousuf said she wanted to clarify one of the biggest misconceptions people have about success, and especially successful people living in Dubai.She said: “People often see the result and assume the journey was straightforward. It wasn’t. There are usually years of uncertainty behind every visible achievement. There are decisions nobody sees, failures nobody talks about, financial pressure, self-doubt, changing direction and starting again.”If Dubai has taught her anything, it’s that you don’t need to have everything figured out before you start.Yousuf explained: “You just need to be willing to learn, take responsibility and keep moving. Dubai taught me that ambition isn't something you should apologise for. And it taught me something else that I carry with me... hard work isn't a punishment. It's a privilege. If I have the opportunity to work, learn, build and create something better for myself and my daughter, I don't want to take that opportunity for granted.”
