How billionaire rebuilt his life brick-by-brick
Deepak Arora was fired and lost job contracts, but never gave up
Deepak Arora, 67, just won the tender to construct the Indian and Emirates Airline pavilions for Dubai Expo 2020. He is the managing director of DRA Group of companies.
But life was not always such a success story. His struggles were plenty to get to where he is today, yet he says he never thought of them as struggles.
“I took them in my stride,” Arora tells Gulf News from his plush mansion.
Turning back the clock
Arora came to the UAE in 1976. He had just completed his bachelor’s degree in architecture.
“While I was studying, there were some people from the UAE looking to employ people on an hourly basis. I applied for the job. I was young and raring to start work.”
Three days into the job, “I saw people were coming only to make quick money. They were not contributing anything. On the third day of my job, I told my employer that I was not turning up on the job anymore. I told them I did not want free money. I wanted to do something constructive and contribute to something bigger,” Arora recalled.
“As a parting note, I told them that if they wanted to reach out to me for something more permanent and serious, they could do so.”
Within two weeks, Arora got a call from the UAE employer. The company — based in Ras Al Khaimah — asked him to come back. “I still had three months left for college, so I could not commit.
Life in UAE in 1976
“I know there are no second opportunities these days. But back then, I thought if the job was meant for me, it will wait. Three months later, in November 1976, I arrived in the land of sand and sun, the UAE,” said Arora.
“The Federation had been formed in 1971 and the country was progressing. I would not say infrastructure was in place. But from stories I heard at the time from people who had come before — it was better than what it was in the 40s, 50s, 60s.”
In 1977, there was a recession. His company was firing its employees. Arora was one of them.
“Luckily, I found another job — a better one. The company was involved in the township of Ras Al Khaimah and I got involved in the project,” recalled Arora.
His job involved a lot of town planning — something that he was not taught in college as an architecture student.
To his bad luck, the company closed down six months later. This was the second time his career saw a shake-up.
In 1980, Arora thought about starting out on his own and so registered his first company called Deep Construction. The company was based in Ras Al Khaimah.
A poultry farm project was the first job he received in his new company. Around this time Arora was also looking at getting married.
“My parents had seen a girl and I planned a visit to India to see her and get married. Three months later, we were engaged on February 14.”
When he returned to Ras Al Khaimah after his engagement, Arora found the poultry project going nowhere and the project shelved. He was back to square one.
Today Arora, his wife, two sons, daughter-in-law and grand-child live together in their 60,000-sq ft Emirates Hills mansion.