Cia Bernales

Crazy Rich Asians is the first Hollywood film to feature an all-Asian cast in 25 years. As our Fast Company colleague Joe Berkowitz recently wrote, the film, much like Black Panther, is something of “a litmus test for whether audiences will come out for a film created across-the-board by Asian Americans, and with a culturally reflective storyline.” The response so far has been largely positive.

Back in 2000, I was a recent college grad armed with a degree in fashion design that I certainly wasn’t using in my web design job. I knew the internet was something that I wanted to be a part of and it was exciting to work with designers from Carnegie Mellon and coders who were also learning what HTML could offer the world. The Y2K hoopla was all for naught and everyone and their mothers were making dot-com new money.

Editor’s Note: This is one of the most-read leadership articles of 2014. Click here to see the full list. It all started with a bet. I came into the Fast Company office one April morning last year and crafted a makeshift platform for my laptop and secondary monitor from discarded Ikea side tables so I could try standing while I worked. People were naturally curious when they saw my new setup and started to bet that I wouldn’t last at my new standing desk for more than three months.