Some observations from a recent Asian American businesspeople gathering (This is a light posting, so please don’t take this too seriously 🙂
- Everyone went to an Ivy League school or a top UC. Everyone was a pre-med student at some point, regardless of what they do now. Man, our parents…
- There are so many accomplished yet humble Asian American businesspeople. One person I met was managing an 11-figure fund while having his own 9-figure family office fund, and he literally looked and talked like the next door neighbor who just finished grocery shopping at 99 Ranch. Humility is definitely an Asian American value that’s been passed down from our parents.
- Can humility hurt us? Unfortunately yes sometimes, as part of the world still sees leadership as something brash and macho. Is humility a bad thing? Not at all. Model minority is a dangerous term conjuring up the quiet, obedient workhorse stereotypes, but Asian Americans do possess certain values (such as humility) that should be model to everyone, including our own children.
- Our success sometimes contributes to boxing us in. One person (in the music industry) said: Kpop is great, but she’s tired of hearing “Oh you must be producing Kpop” – Asians can produce other great music too! I can see how it must be frustrating if an Asian movie producer keeps hearing about Crazy Rich Asians. That would feel really limiting and even humiliating. There will always be ignorance; what will get us out of the box would be more variety of Asian American success stories.
- For instance, there should be more Asian American celebrities and sports stars, not just the “business brain” right hand people for celebrities and sports stars (of which there are many capable and successful Asian Americans, we shouldn’t minimize their amazing success)
- Entrepreneurship is a great way to fight the Asian American stereotype. No one is going to even remotely question Jensen Huang’s leadership abilities just because he’s Asian. Luckily we see more Asian Americans (including young females) starting their startups. I met someone who looked like in her early 20s and yet building the next generation spacetech startup.
- A lot of Asian Americans grew up on Korean music videos. There should be more drama-like Korean music videos! (Guy gives away his eyes for his love, she opens her eyes and one day finds him…) These days Kpop music videos look all the same to me, featuring the same-looking boys and girls..
These were just my random observations, but if anybody wants to see some real posts on the topic, follow Dave Lu – he has really thoughtful posts, including his seminal essay “How the Immigrant Scarcity Mindset Holds Us Back” (link below).