Dubai: Dreaming big and believing that things will work out … this seems to be a running theme in the life of 47-year-old Indian expat Ryan Gazder.
Having spent his school life in Muscat, Oman, Gazder grew up on a steady feed of space adventure stories and science fiction, and always knew he had a future in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).
But getting the chance to become an aerospace engineer happened almost by chance.
“I was giving my final year exam in school, when we saw an ad in the newspaper in Oman – the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay announced that it was inviting applicants for the upcoming academic year,” he said.
After fulfilling the admission criteria and passing the entrance exam, Gazder was handed a list of programmes he could choose from.
He expected the standard offerings like mechanical engineering, but to his surprise, the first option on the list was straight out of his childhood dream – aerospace engineering.
“Once I got through, the staff did mention that I was the only one who ticked just that one box. Everyone else made sure they selected more options, just in case they weren’t able to get their first choice,” Gazder said.
From aerospace engineer to sales
But while getting his dream educational degree was huge, once he graduated, the options available to him did not seem as exciting – he was unable to travel to the US, with visa restrictions in place after 9/11, and the available opportunities in the public and private sector did not excite him.
After a couple of years of working in the field of defence research, the then-23-year-old decided to do something dramatic – collect all his life savings, which were around AED 500, apply for a visit visa and try his luck in Dubai.
“I was young, and at that age, you want to see the world. And when you see your hopes and dreams deferred, it makes you want to get out and do something completely different,” he said.
So, on March 27, 2003, Gazder landed in Dubai – unsure where he would stay, or how he would make ends meet.
After a month of struggling to find his feet, a day before he was due to return to Mumbai, he got a job offer – not in the field of aerospace engineering, but in hospitality contracting.
“My visa was running out and I needed the money more than anything else,” he said.
The new job gave him a visa and a steady salary.
“As it happens, I had very little clue about what they were doing as hospitality industry contractors,” Gazder said.
And so, he learnt – from understanding what a construction fit-out is, to hanging out with his team at nights as they set up dishwashers at sites, to waiting for hours outside the offices of consultants, hoping they would give him some time to pitch his company’s contracting services.
“That was the toughest part – waiting for hours just to hear a consultant say they could give me an appointment for half an hour, three months later,” Gazder said.
And then, one day, a mistakenly sent fax turned his life around.
“I was that guy who would just pick up the fax that had come in and drop it off to my colleagues, just because it was nice. I remember seeing just one fax coming in that day and as I picked it up to check who it was for, I realised it wasn’t addressed to anyone in particular,” Gazder said.
It was an Australian company, looking for consultants in Dubai, for an upcoming project.
Almost on auto-pilot, Gazder began putting together the pieces that would help him get out of the job he didn’t enjoy, to making something of his own.
The next day, he took the meeting, and to his surprise, also sealed the deal.
But how was he supposed to get the expertise of consultants?
“I went back to my company and I hired my boss,” he said, laughing.
“Honestly, my boss also knew I was wasting my potential and wanted me to do something more, so by day he would be my boss and at night, I’d be his boss,” he added.
After just two months of working part-time, getting the best talent he had access to, to work on the project, Gazder decided to jump all in and established his company in 2004. Slowly but steadily, the projects also began coming in.
“We would initially work out of coffee shops, where we couldn’t even afford to order the coffee. So, I’d order a bottle of water, and the designer I was working with would order his,” Gazder said.
“Then, we finally set up our office in Garhoud, which we quickly outgrew. We then moved to Silicon Oasis, which we also outgrew. Then we moved to Downtown, and finally we are now in the Dubai World Trade Centre,” Gazder added.
And while he admits that the first job he got was more out of pushing boundaries, being able to run a successful business for more than two decades has required tenacity as well as attention to detail.
“You have to be able to walk the talk, you have to be meticulous about drawings, and that’s something that has been with me since childhood – I am immaculate with details. Don’t misspell your client’s name in an email, make sure your documents are consistent … these are some of the founding principles I worked with and they still stand true today,” he said.
Another lesson he learnt over the years, he says, was to ‘under-promise and over-deliver’.
“That is one thing that stuck with me and also happens to be the essence of the hospitality industry – making sure that you keep your word. If you say you are going to do something, you have to do it – no backtracking, no excuse, nothing. If it costs you money, doesn’t matter, you still have to do it. That’s the company culture that we have today,” he said.
Today, Gazder says, they have delivered over 800 projects across 52 countries.
The ability to reinvent yourself
It’s essentially a ‘Dubai-it’ story – of dreaming big, and executing with speed and precision, to deliver results the world can see.
“From the time I was a child reading science fiction to learning about spaceships and all that, aiming big has always been a part of my life. But Dubai is a city that makes you see others’ dreams, which have already come true. And that is very inspirational,” he said.
“Focus on your work and there are multiple levels of proof that you can achieve your dreams,” he added.
The safety and stability of the city also allows people to stop worrying about not being able to live their best life, whatever it may mean for them, Gazder says.
For Gazder, for example, being able to travel has been one of the biggest advantages – having travelled to 133 countries over the years.
He also met his wife at an airport in Taiwan, while on a new year’s trip with his friends.
“My wife is Indian, from Mumbai, and as it happens, lives across the street from where my parents live, and we never crossed paths even once over the years. We met for the first time in an airport half a world away,” Gazder said, laughing.
But it was yet another reminder for the Indian expat, that when things are meant to happen, they just do.
“If I say that Dubai has changed my life beyond my imagination, it would be an understatement. I was expecting to have a very ordinary life, I didn’t think that any of the things I would have dreamed of or wanted were in reach. Dubai allowed me to reinvent myself and if you look at the city – it has put so much into ensuring the welfare of everyone who lives here,” he said.
“It's given me an opportunity to reflect, introspect and grow, as I'm sure it has done for everybody else who calls it home,” he added.