A Personal Reflection on Leadership for Early Career Asian American Professionals

I'm excited to be speaking this Friday (March 27, 2026) on a leadership panel by the Pan-Asian American Community House at UPenn to discuss Asian American leadership at different phases of a career.

It's been a while since I've been back in a room like that — talking to students who are roughly where I was more than a quarter century ago.

I've been thinking about what would have actually been useful to hear back then.

The "Good on Paper" Trap

One pattern that comes to mind, especially for Asian American students, is how much we optimize to be "good on paper."

Good grades. Good schools. Good resumes.

As Asian Americans, we're often taught — by parents and peers — to do the work first, then earn the next step.

That approach works — up to a point.

Early in my career, as a junior investment banker at Merrill Lynch, that was my mindset.

I optimized for output.

Long hours. Responsiveness. Reliability. Strong technical and quantitative modeling. Financial analysis. Deep company, financial, competitor, and industry research.

By the end of my analyst years, I felt accomplished — trusted by senior bankers, staffed on key deals, with a venture capital job lined up.

I assumed that would carry forward into the next stage.

The Review That Changed How I Think

Then came a performance review that stuck with me.

It didn't go the way I expected — not because anything was wrong, but because they were looking out for me.

They told me they could spend the time going through all the positive feedback — most of which I probably already knew — but that wasn't the most useful thing for me.

They chose to spend that time giving me advice they thought would matter longer term.

What Presence Actually Means

The feedback was that I needed to develop more "presence." Seeing the blank look on my face, she explained. It's how you're perceived, and how you carry yourself in a room.

Examples she gave:

• Not sitting quietly at the end of the table.
• Not waiting to interact until I was fully certain.
• Being willing to speak, to take a position, to engage in the room.

At the time, it was hard to process what they were even talking about. I was a junior analyst, and up until then, no one had really told me that was part of the job.

In hindsight, it was probably the most important advice I could have received.

I learned that progression isn't just about how others evaluate you — it's also about how you show up.

The early part of any career rewards being right and being reliable.

The next part starts to reward something else — how you show up when the answer isn't obvious, when decisions are being formed in real time, and when visibility matters.

And that shift isn't always natural, especially if it's been instilled your whole life to over-achieve for others to notice. What I learned is that it's up to you to make others notice. And you don't need approval to make that progression.

Especially if you've been trained — culturally or otherwise — to wait until you're fully ready before stepping forward.

Looking back, I over-weighted my preparation. I assumed the work would speak for itself. While others moved without waiting for permission.

Takeaway: My work needed a voice — and the willingness to use it.

It's been more than 20 years since that review, and it's still something I think about — and continue to work on.

Building Teams That Develop Beyond the Work

It's also something I pay attention to now in how we build teams and develop professionals at Healthcare.com.

One thing I'm proud of is that our leadership group today has strong Asian American representation — not just at the junior levels, but across director, VP, and executive roles.

Those opportunities are earned.

Once people are in those roles, the ability to expand — to develop presence, judgment, and voice — matters just as much as the work itself.

If I were to simplify it for my 25 year-old self:

• Being good on paper gets you in the room.
• It doesn't determine what happens once you're there.
• You have more control than you think, and you'll grow faster when you do.