'Dubai never lets you fail': Moroccan entrepreneur on starting over

Moroccan entrepreneur Wissam Jamal Eddine, 28, says Dubai helped her turn a failed fashion venture into a new business focused on language and life coaching. Wissam launched clothing brand Zeyna in Morocco in 2023, moved the business to Dubai in January 2024, ran pop-up stores across the UAE and had a shop with a local partner, but ultimately closed the label after “two full years of hard work.” She is now developing SpeakRise, a program that combines language instruction in English, French and Arabic with coaching on confidence and life skills.

"It didn't work out, honestly because I didn't know the market well and made a lot of mistakes along the way," Wissam said of Zeyna. "I gave it two full years of hard work, I had a shop with a local friend of mine, took part in multiple events, and ran pop-up stores across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Sharjah, and Fujairah but in the end, it just didn't work, so I made the decision to close it."

Wissam is a certified linguistic and life coach who, for six years, taught and coached alongside her work on Zeyna. Reflecting on what she learned from the experience, she said the failure clarified her priorities: "That failure helped me realise two things. First, that I do love fashion – I love making beautiful dresses for women. But second, and more importantly, it helped me realise that what I actually love most is coaching."

From fashion label to SpeakRise

SpeakRise is billed as an accessible, self-paced language and life-coaching programme designed to help learners build practical language skills while developing confidence and presentation abilities. Wissam described the offering as a hybrid of language tuition and personal-development coaching: learning "English, French and Arabic in an easy, fun way, while also being coached on life skills: confidence, stepping outside your comfort zone, and owning the room".

The move to Dubai was central to that pivot. Wissam first visited the UAE in April 2023 with her mother, returned four months later for a longer stay and decided to apply for a business licence. She officially relocated at the end of 2023 and spent the first months exploring the region. She credits the city's practical environment — fast administrative processes and a broad network of entrepreneurs — for making "now" the right time to relaunch her career.

• First visit to Dubai: April 2023
• Launched Zeyna in Morocco: 2023
• Moved Zeyna to Dubai: January 2024
• Coaching experience: six years
• New venture: SpeakRise — languages plus life coaching

Wissam emphasises the symbolic and practical support she received from her mother, who encouraged the move and provided moral backing: "She told me that whatever I wanted to do, I could do it, that she believed in me, and that she saw the UAE as a safe place, where she wouldn't have to worry about me."

Looking ahead, Wissam is focused on scaling SpeakRise: securing funding, opening offices in Dubai, expanding her team and creating employment opportunities. She said she can see herself living long-term in the UAE — "growing older here, getting married here, raising my kids here. I feel safe here" — and views failure as a prompt to begin again. "This is a place that turned a desert into one of the most opportunity-filled places in the world. So no, failure isn't an ending here, it's a beginning," she said.