Burnout to epic $200m empire: Dubai heiress reveals how failure led to success

Dubai: "I didn’t enjoy what I was doing.”

That single realisation changed everything for Dubai heiress Meher Mirchandani. This proverbial 'nepo baby' could’ve squandered the millions belonging to her business tycoon family, partied through her 20s, and coasted on her last name.

But Meher —fashion designer turned entrepreneur turned leadership coach—chose a far tougher route: reinvention.

“I’m super grateful. I don’t see privilege as a weakness. If you’ve been given a lot, you have a lot of responsibility,” says Meher, who now co-leads the Dubai-based Palmon Group and Manrre Logistics Fund.

“As soon as I joined the family business, I wanted to make sure we were leading a conscious business and a conscious life.”

At 22, she was one of Dubai’s first homegrown fashion designers, dreaming of showcasing her creations down the catwalks of New York Fashion Week. “I did this beautiful ad for ADCB where I said I’d feel most fulfilled on the catwalk of NYFW. I could visualise it,” she recalls.

But the glitter faded fast. “I started feeling burdened,” she says. Married, pregnant with twins, and juggling fittings across continents, she began to question everything. “That’s when the questioning started: Do I really want this life?”

Despite winning accolades in the local awards circuit and being hailed a Dubai success story, Meher felt a growing void.

“I kept struggling with what is missing in my life. Who do I want to be?”

Soon, emotional turmoil turned physical.

“There was something so wrong with my mental well-being that my body was showing it,” she says.

Alarming incidents followed: a car accident, a hospitalised vertigo attack, and even a ripped rib cage from a mild cough.

“My body was resisting. I knew there was something missing.”

That pain became the portal.

“You have to break for the light to enter,” she says, quoting Rumi. “So I took on a lot of healing—Theta Healing, quantum healing, past-life regression therapy. I’m a Theta healer myself.”

She began letting go of the glamour. “When I started feeling burdened, I didn’t enjoy what I was doing. And when that happened, I had to ask myself: What is the life I want?”

She pressed pause on her fashion label and joined her family’s Palmon Group in 2013 as Managing Director.

“If I’m not feeling powerful from within, how will I impact the bottom line?”

At the time, Palmon Group managed a spectrum of businesses: residential assets, the Marina-based Marinascape Mall, facilities management, furniture and kitchens, and warehousing.

“We had a facilities management company with 350 to 400 people ... We were growing our warehousing portfolio,” she says.

Then came the Mannre Logistics Fund. “My brother, my father and I co-founded it. We started with $80 million. Today we’ve acquired assets worth close to $200 million [around Dh734 million)].”

She didn’t stop at boardrooms. Meher wanted impact.

“I kept wondering what else better can we do to better humanity?” she asks.

“As soon as I came into the business, I asked about our CSR initiatives.”

Through the Palmon Foundation, she mentors children in India, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

“I have one-on-one calls with them every month,” she says. “Their annual school fees are 12,000 rupees [Dh515]. That can help them become doctors. You’d rather create more impact than buy more dresses.”

Raised amid Rolls Royces and lavish homes, Meher remains deeply grounded.

“Luckily, I married a very humble man,” she says. “My husband didn’t want to move homes for the longest time. He wanted to give our kids a sense of grounding.”

The key to it all, she says, is spirituality. “I have a spiritual master. My family is very spiritually grounded. That’s what kept me from breaking completely.”

Her internal journey led her to write her first book, Come Alive, Don’t Just Exist.

“The missing piece of puzzle in my life was self-love,” she says. “Even after all I did with my fashion label, I was still beating myself up. Outside validation will never be enough.”

“From 22 to 32, no one would have guessed I was in pain,” she adds. “But I was.”

Now a certified professional coach, she helps others transform. “Success is something you attract by the person you become,” she says.

“It’s not about buying the house or the car. You start with insight. Success is an inside job.”

She invested heavily in growth—Harvard, London Business School, and countless development programmes. “You name it. I did it. I wanted to grow myself to grow my business.”

Every working day she explores how kindness and high performance can go hand in hand.

“I ask my entire team to operate with love. And we meet our targets every year. We’ve 10x’d our business in five years.”

Even her parenting style reflects that conscious approach.

“My kids are growing up in privilege, but we’re very clear about our parenting. My husband didn’t want them overexposed to wealth. Humility is the core of our life.”

While her family name is often linked with the UAE’s wealthiest Indians, Meher shrugs off the labels.

“We don’t look at those labels. I told my father that when our company reaches a certain revenue, we will support that many children around the world.”

She says she takes pride in co-founding a logistics fund that now manages assets worth nearly $200 million, scaling a 5,000 sq ft retail business to 15,000 sq ft, and mentoring the next generation of leaders.

“In my 20s, I was a fashion designer. In my 30s, a second-generation entrepreneur scaling businesses. In my 40s, I’m a leadership coach and impact creator.”

Her final word? “Every day should be a wow day.”