I think it's funny when people tell me that I'm a risk-taker for being an entrepreneur. I'm the exact opposite - being an entrepreneur just so happens to increase my chances of fulfilling my goals in life, living the lifestyle I want, and enjoying the work I love. By working for an established business, my upper-bound on happiness and fulfillment is greatly reduced. Life is short, and I want to maximize everything.

Everything I do for Indinero is about reducing its risk of failure. Everything. I hire people who are experts at what they do because their chance of doing a better job is higher than mine. I'm charging for the product upfront because it ensures that we're spending time on something we will make money from. I helped win us a grant from Lightspeed Venture Partners to show my team that we thought things through well enough for institutional VCs to give us money (and, of course, to have money). But in order to get that money, I had to show Lightspeed that we already had an established team. So basically, in order to have one, I had to have the other. It's an endless cycle of risk reduction. Team + Capital = Startup. No team = no capital = no startup.

Throughout my summer at Lightspeed Venture Partners' office, I learned that investors were risk-averse too. Their entire business is based on investing in the least-riskiest companies, and that seemed counter-intuitive. But it makes sense. Investors have a finite amount of time to spend with their portfolio companies, a finite number of investments they can make each year, and their job is to ensure a decent payoff for their investors. (yes, can you believe it? institutional investors have investors too) And this means precisely one thing for the entrepreneur seeking venture financing: Everything you do pre-funding should attack the things VCs think about when determining the worth of your company.

Investors like traction. They like a seasoned team, they like paying customers, they like CEOs who come from technical backgrounds, they like young founders, and everything that means that their colleagues won't criticize them for making a bad investment. Yes, your company probably won't need money and probably won't have trouble finding investors if it has all of the above, but it doesn't matter. The fewer risks there are in your company, the more likely you are to get an investment. And this comes to prove my point that investors are for the most part risk-averse.

Lets take a step back. In order to reduce my risk in life (to maximize my personal happiness and fulfillment), I need to build a great company that makes money. And to achieve that, I need to reduce risk for myself, for my (possible future) investors, and obviously for the team members who execute on this dream. People who work at startups have an interesting mindset. They enjoy independence, they like the idea of being an entrepreneur, but they want to come in at a stage with significantly less risk. For example, telling people that Lightspeed Venture Partners gave us money immediately changes the way they look at us, because it sounds like we have our heads on straight. Which means that there's a forever ending cycle of risk reduction: I have to reduce risk in my company enough for customers to signup at a rapid pace, which reduces the risk enough to bring on good investors, which therefore reduces the company's risk enough to hire smart talent, and the sum of all of these things will hopefully make us a low-risk, successful company. Phew.

Don't get me wrong. Starting a company is a risky endeavor, but succeeding comes down to mitigating all of your risks for failure. Instead of writing down a list of things that you should do, start a new list called "things that will lead to my company failing." And on the top of that list will probably be "running out of money." Then take each line-item, figure out how to address it, and then you know exactly what you should be focusing your time and energy on. It's a different way of startup management, but it has completely transformed my company's culture for the better. Remember - before your company has the chance to make billions, the CEO should eat and sleep risk reduction.

"Jessica, honey, baby, you're a smart girl, but your business idea is total shit, and none of your friends are going to be honest like your mommy is."

Hearing that hurt more than having teeth pulled, but it was for the good of humanity. It made me realize that most people refrain themselves from giving you negative feedback because they want to support you. If you have any relationship with the person you're asking feedback from, they'll find good things to say about your business idea, even if it's a lard of crap. As an entrepreneur, it's your job to get them out of this comfort zone, telling you the brutal truth.

Not only are people too nice when it comes to getting feedback on our business ideas, but many of us sub-consciously seek out "constructive advice" from people who we know are going to give us positive feedback. When someone compliments our idea, it's tempting to move onto getting more "constructive feedback" from other friends who we know will pat us on the back.

When starting a new company, you have the entire entrepreneurial community on your side. "Your idea is fantastic, and you should ignore all of the naysayers!" But I'm going to suggest something different: Instead of ignoring them, talk to as many of them as possible, and figure out why your business could potentially fail. By doing so, you'll be able to anticipate pitfalls that you can then account for. Not to mention, you'll be better able to sway the minds of people who would otherwise be skeptical of you and your idea.

People are too nice. Friends and colleagues will praise you for your entrepreneurial ambition, even if they sub-consiously think your idea sucks. I speak from experience -- when a good friend of mine pitches a business idea to me, I'm tempted to think only about the positives. It's my friend, so I want to uplift his or her sprits! But upon greater thought, I realize how flawed the business is, and I wish my entrepreneur friend knew what I thought.

I've been working on a stupid business idea for the past few weeks, and I've been so pumped about it after getting positive feedback from most of the people I talk to. But just this week, I pitched the idea to my mom. As a successful entrepreneur, I thought she'd be able to give good constructive feedback. And "constructive feedback" she gave. Within 10 seconds, she was able to give me a dozen reasons for why my business idea is flawed, and for why I lack needed experience to see it through.

I thought three things: 1) "Wow, my idea sucks", 2) "Wow, I'm a failure for an entrepreneur", and 3) "Wow, my mom's doing a fricken good job at convincing me not to drop out of college". I cried my brains out from thoughts of being a failure, then recovered with newfound knowledge on how to actually improve on my business. And of course, with renewed motivation to prove naysayers (like my mom) wrong.

Nobody wants to hear how much their idea sucks, and that's because most naysayers are shitty at providing constructive criticism. The last time my mom criticized my entrepreneurial abilities, we were driving to the airport. I remember wanting to jump out of the car rather than to hear her tear apart my dreams. I told my mom, "Why do you hate me so much?!" As an entrepreneur, you probably understand that having someone tell you that your idea sucks is analogous to being made fun of in middle school. You feel like you're hot shit, and then moments later, you realize that you're a loser who didn't know any better.

So suck it up. The best criticism acts like a slap in the face, and you realize that you're dreaming stupidity by thinking that you and your business is great. Maybe I'm a masochist, but I like it when my friends (and mom) tell me the fundamental flaws behind my business. As a smart entrepreneur, drag your friends to their feet and have them offer legitimate reasons for why your business could fail. With a sense of humor in all of this, you'll ultimately be a better entrepreneur, with answers for everyone who questions the purpose of your company's existence.

Just a few weeks ago, I wrote about why 99% of entrepreneurs fail. But before you have the potential to be a failed entrepreneur, you need an idea. And many aspiring entrepreneurs don't know where to start.

Why are good ideas so hard to come by? Because most people try to think of them in either the wrong venue, or from the wrong-perspective. You need to stop thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur when you're thinking of an idea. You need to experience life as the world's victim, experiencing the flaws of the human life, and figuring out ways to improve on it.

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How can I be the person with billions of great business ideas?

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1) You're born with the ability to see the world in an abstract way, and can immediately come up with ideas on how to rid the world of its problems. You look at the world around you, and ideas are popping out as fast as babies from teenage girls. In other words, you're lucky.

2) And then there's everyone else who can't think of any good ideas. For the other 99% of the entrepreneurs in the world, including me, you struggle in the pursuit for ideas. You either need to retrain to be an idea person, or steal an idea from someone else. Or do both. So how did I do it? How did I go from having no ideas for a business/nonprofit to having more ideas than I could possibly work on? I followed the following "idea life-cycle":

It isn't simple, but I'm going to suggest that you change your perspective on the world in one select way: It's as retarded as it gets, but be a picky bitch who can identify everything wrong in the world, and not be scared to share it with others. Everyday, you experience minor inconveniences in your life that are waiting to get solved. But after learning to become "mature adults," you've conditioned yourself to be happy with what you have, leaving the flaws in life untouched.

If you want to expose yourself to more ideas, you need to train yourself, and in every obscure way possible. Don't settle for anything that you're not content with. Experience the world for what it is, and be absolutely freaking honest with your feelings and frustrations in life, and come up with ways to fix them. Let's take one "simple" exercise that I remember doing in elementary school, and analyze it. Here was the thought process of my 6 year old mind:

I'd go to a restaurant with my Daddy. The wait is 15 minutes long and I hate waiting. Why can't I order my food NOW, and have it ready for me when a table is ready? Why do I have to wait on a line before I can even order? Why is it annoying to flip each page in the menu? What have my friends tried and liked? Why do waiters take so long to come take my order when I know what I want to order? Why is the portion so massive... couldn't they give me something I could finish? Why does it take so long to pay? ... And Daddy, why are you staring at the waitress?

I could go on and on with this story for pages, describing everything sucky about the way restaurants work. As you could probably assume, I was a very picky, impatient (and curious) child. I'd often share these thoughts with my parents, and they'd tell me to shut up and be appreciative with what I have. Fortunate for them, I've since become a jolly human being.

But unfortunately, I've lost this incredible ability! Think about the possibilities -- If you and I were able to experience the world like 6 year old Jessica Mah, then we'd have hundreds of potential business ideas each day. Sure, you'd probably be a life hater and that lonely kid on the playground who didn't have any friends. (which I was) - but at least you'd have lots of ideas, and perhaps even one fantastic idea for a company you could start.

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Train yourself to be a child who sees more bad than good in the world.

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If you fit into the second category of entrepreneurs that I listed above, (not being born an idea-person) then it's imperative that you train yourself to be the snobby 6 year old girl who has no problem complaining about the flaws in this world, then asking her daddy to fix them. For every flaw you see in this world, write it down in a journal. Be as general as possible. For example, based on my thought-process in a restaurant, I'd be able to come up with these ideas:

- Waiting on lines sucks - Waiting for servers sucks - Having people not know your preferences sucks - Comparing dozens of options with each other sucks - Life in general sucks

Now bring those general ideas back home with you, and get out of your 6 year old la-la land. Start thinking of ways the world sucks in all of those above ways, and ways to fix them. I hated waiting to get seated at a restaurant, so how can I improve that? Since the problem was so general, ("waiting on lines sucks") how could I apply this to waiting for anything in life? This simple example applies to waiting at theme parks, airports, traffic, waiting on new mail, and I'm sure dozens of other things that are totally not worth waiting on.

And for each of those ideas, we can break it down further into dozens of potential solutions. The airport example is being fixed in a lot of great ways that you can see: Online check-in and the Clear Pass, just to name a few. Commercial flight has been around for decades, yet nobody has thought of the above ideas until just a few years ago. This suggests that fantastic ideas are all around you, just waiting to get found.

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So to recap on the lifecycle of finding ideas

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As they say, the best ideas come from entrepreneurs who are fixing a problem that they saw in the world; not from any profit incentive or selfish motive. And there's no better way to do this than to see as many flaws in the world possible. Think of as many ways that life sucks. Every context you're in provides new opportunity to think of ways to improve on the world. Most of the ideas you come up with will suck, but many will hold great opportunity if you don't dismiss them so fast.
Then, apply these flaws to everything else in life. I'm serious -- keep a journal with all of the flaws in the world. Then in the bathtub, start brainstorming creative solutions to those problems. When you have a list of problems to solve, you have a framework from which you can think of brilliant business ideas.

With that said, go experience the world starting now, and be honest with your true feelings on why your life sucks. (even if it doesn't.) Then, transfer those ideas into entrepreneurial concepts. As a good idea-person, you're capable of finding every minuscule flaw in human life. Just try not to bring this to the business... and especially not to the bedroom.

Update: I've received over a dozen emails and phone calls from companies who want me as an intern this summer. I'm inching towards the final phases of my search, and plan on making a final decision by the evening of May 1st. Thanks for all of your support and encouragement!

The past few days have been intense! In a nutshell, I've been looking at an internship -- yes, a JOB with a real COMPANY. It's come to my stark realization that I never thought about working for a company not so much because I thought corporations were dumb, but because there are few places that would allow me to explore my own projects. In other words, I would only work for a company that allowed me to be an entrepreneur within the company. While there aren't many companies with such a culture, I've started to look at a few companies that prosper on having creative and fast moving "intra-preneurs." My partial list includes Ning, Six Apart, PBWiki, and Ustream.

Of course, being that I'm bratty Jessica Mah, I'm super picky with the companies I would want to deal with. Here are my thoughts and reasoning behind the companies I've talked with so far:

1) I'm picky with the companies I interview with, and I immediately look for a culture fit. If anything, culture fit is the FIRST thing I look for in a company. If I'm not going to be happy there, it's not even worth a legit interview. What does culture mean? That deserves a blog post on its own, but it's so crucial for a startup to be fast-moving, communicative, open-minded, friendly, and enthusiastic. If the company has high-walled cubicles and segregated "departments," I have no interest in spending my summer there.

2) I don't accept offers from companies who don't thoroughly interview me. Sure, I think I'm a moderately smart person. However, I want to work for a company where people are brilliant. If the company doesn't bother to test my knowledge and skills, it shows that they don't take hiring seriously. With that said, if I get a job or internship offer from a company that doesn't spend the time needed to test me for culture and knowledge fit, I don't see the company as being good enough for me. Lesson: I only work for startups that make it difficult for me to get in. The next time you interview a "rockstar" prospective employee, keep this in mind.

3) Companies and employees need to give and take equally from each other. In my search for a summer internship, I'm not looking for a big name brand. I want to work for a company that lets me play around with my product management, business, and coding skills. I want to work for a company that wants me as much as I want them. One of the companies on my list offered to fly me out for a visit -- that shows a lot of dedication. It proves to me that the company wants me as bad as I want it.

4) Do programming ninjas talk to the business people? In other words, do the complaints and desires of the users get seen by the people working on the product? Sounds like a silly question, but so many companies (United Airlines among them,) don't have any connect between the customer support people and the executives who implement the changes. With that said, I like seeing companies where coders and business people are in everyday dialogue with each other. I love how Ning's customer advocate team also works in product management -- since they talk to customers everyday, they are more likely to know what changes should be made.

5) Money!!! As you've probably read before, compensation is not my #1 priority. However, it's not something that can be ignored. Living in the Bay Area this summer costs a LOT of money. I'll be paying $2000+ / month in various living costs that include food, apartment, transportation. Then I somehow need to pay off the $5,000 summer tuition bill that Stanford University is soon to send me. The startup scene is competitive -- In most cases, I want these companies just as much as they want me. If they want me to join on board, a competitive offer is definitely in order.

6) Networking, colleagues, and mentors. Last, but not least, I look for any potential to grow my network. I'm looking for executives who are well connected in Silicon Valley and beyond. I'm looking for colleagues who are open and willing to help me just as much as I'm willing to help them. With all of the companies I've applied to so far, I've either personally met an executive there or had one of my friends refer me. Never underestimate the power of a personal network!

With that said, I'll keep you updated with my internship hunt. Now you know the supposedly secret thoughts on what a self proclaimed teen entrepreneur looks for in an internship! Having this summer internship won't slow me down from being an entrepreneur. It's simply a way for me to further my learning -- a way for me to figure out how fast-moving companies survive and grow.

By the time I graduate with my Bachelor's degree in two years, I'll be fully prepared to take on the world with a company of my own.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

Since childhood, I've associated computer science with geeky and socially inept little boys, and for rational reason: because all of the computer geeks I knew were in fact geeky and socially inept little boys! But as I mentioned in my previous post about computer camp, I've wanted to go into tech from an early age -- before the idea of entrepreneurship ever occurred to me. However, as I became less socially inept, I began associating myself with the non-geeks. The jocks! The cheerleaders!

People often ask me if I feel as if I'm being taken advantaged of, or if being a girl makes things more difficult. No and yes -- I don't feel as if guys are mean to girls in computer science. If anything, guys are more willing to help a cute girl debug her code for obvious reason. But is it more difficult? From a social standpoint, definitely. Most girls in tech are podcasters or videobloggers -- Veronica Belmont, Julia Allison, and Alana Taylor among them. They're all great people, amazing at what they do, but that leaves few girls who are hardcore geeks. There aren't many girls starting their own companies. It's almost expected that I go into community or marketing, but I've since decided to go against these societal expectations.

I'm now at a crossroads in my educational career because I need to decide my major. Do I major in computer science, economics, international relations, or what? As a friend of mine mentioned, what if I'm terrible at computer science or what if I'm terrible at economics? The educational path I choose will determine the people I associate with in my classes. The computer science program at Simon's Rock attracts the uber geeks, whereas the economics program attracts the more popular kids. Why does this matter so much? Because I see education as being more than what's learned in the classroom -- it's the independent projects that I would start with my classmates. It affects my social life, which matters more than you might think for girls. Regardless as to what major I choose, I'll plan on surrounding myself with both econ and comp sci people.

As time goes by, the negative image of computer science and geeks will fade away. With more "socially capable" individuals in computer science, people like myself will feel more inclined to choose a math or science related subject as a major. I met Leah Culver at a dinner in Amsterdam, and her story is inspiring. She went to school thinking that she'd go into art or graphic design, and left with a degree in computer science. She did what she felt passionate about, and others like myself will follow in a similar path. Just last week, I met a girl through my blog named Cassie Wallender, who also began college at age 16 and took up programming and business from an early age. In the coming few years, we'll hopefully see more and more girls flooding the halls of science departments!

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

This post was inspired by a discussion in my psychology class about how money doesn't buy happiness

Few of us are born entrepreneurial. We're geeks! We're engineers. We love computers, we love programming, and we've known this from an incredibly early age. Many people ask me when did I get into this geeky entrepreneur stuff. Well, easy! I remember tinkering with my Windows 3.1 desktop since kindergarten days. Daddy would teach me how to use the control panel, how to install/uninstall my kindergarten computer games, and I got hooked. I went to computer camp starting in 5th grade and started coding in C and C++. I didn't know that I'd one day call myself an entrepreneur. Ask the Google guys or Bill Gates what they were doing in elementary school and they'd probably reply with something quite similar. All of them stumbled on doing their entrepreneurial ventures not so much for the purpose of getting rich, but rather because they truly wanted to pursue their own projects and interests. The money is great, but the means are even greater.

This precisely answers why multi-level-marketers are NOT entrepreneurs: they don't care about what they're doing or what they're selling. They're obsessed with the idea of getting rich, and the means of getting there doesn't matter. They aren't invested in the process of creating a business and few of them are capable of it anyway. To start a company based on the idea of getting rich is probably not in your best interest for two reasons:

1) High expectations = high likelihood of being disappointed. Chances are, your business is going to fail. I know plenty of successful entrepreneurs who start new companies that fail, but with low expectations, they're able to get on their feet and start anew. If my expectations for starting a company are to have a good learning experience, there's no way that I can fail.

2) Money seeking entrepreneurs often fail because they over-plan, over-expect, over-demand, etc.. For small web/tech startups, it makes most sense to get a startup off the ground without much planning. If it fails, great. If it doesn't, even better! Plans are good for thinking things out, but they're often irrelevant because your company is likely to go in different directions from originally planned.

Entrepreneurs in business solely for money will hate their jobs. They'll get bored and impatient until they cash out their millions. Because of their disinterest in the means, these money seeking "entrepreneurs" prioritize short term gain over long term benefits. The term "money doesn't buy happiness" has some truth to it -- sure, money is what all entrepreneurs inevitably want, but it comes down to whether or not they're interested in the process of creating a project and turning it into a business in order to better pursue their interests.

Real life example: For the project that I just announced I was starting, one of my partners was thinking about planning things out and revenue models and all of that jazz - but personally, neither me nor my cousin are interested in that. We just want to make something new and awesome. I'll take care of the business development and revenue, but only because that's something I have A LOT of fun doing.

The point is, we didn't start or end as "entrepreneurs." True entrepreneurs always had a love for doing what they do, and they decided to be entrepreneurial because it gave them more opportunities to explore their interests and to create cool things. They care about money, but wealth isn't a requirement for entrepreneurs to want to start companies. Keep this in mind before you start your next company.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early college, Bard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

Over the past year, I've learned a lot about successful leaders and entrepreneurs. The remarkably successful ones aren't working 247 on their businesses because they were smart enough to recruit a brilliant team for both their personal and business lives. A fellow TEDster I met this weekend told me about ways he manages his life -- he recruits experts in all fields of knowledge to assist him with his financial life, his children, his home, his vacations, his appointments, his company's technology, his company's marketing, etc… To guide his decisions in life and business, he has what he calls a "board of life." In other words, a group of remarkable individuals who feel personally invested into his future.

Firstly, no entrepreneur should be expected to know everything about business, but s/he should be able to know enough in order to recruit help from remarkable individuals in their respective fields. And if the individual is anything short of remarkable, look for someone else. Remarkable entrepreneurs don't need to be baby geniuses, but they need to be able to network with the individuals who will influence their businesses for the better. If the entrepreneur manages to hire and manage a remarkable team, s/he will have more time to devote to a personal life.

While I ran my first (failed) company, I managed to do just that. I recruited incredibly smart techies to help manage all of the issues related to my dedicated server clients while I enjoyed time on the beaches of Puerto Rico. My team didn’t exist to assist ME -- their purpose was to serve the company, and my existence was to make sure that their ideals remained that way.

This unnamed TEDster proposed the idea of having a "board of life," which caters more to the individual entrepreneurs. This board should consist of accomplished entrepreneurs and experts who feel personally invested in one's future. They'll get you the connections you need, offer you limitless personal support, and encourage you to do amazing things. In a way, I see members on my board of life as being my aunts and uncles. While it takes time to build a relationship with them, you almost have an inherent instinct from the moment you meet them as to whether or not you can provide meaning to each other. They literally feel like family in that both you and your "mentor" would go out of the way to do anything for each other. I call them "mentors" because they're far more than mentors. The TEDster I met with made clear the distinction: while mentors are there to give you sound advice, members on your board of life have a family-like relationship to you.

The ideas of recruiting a dream team can also be applied to managing one's personal life. My parents employ multiple people fulltime to manage our family's finances, home, appointments, travel, etc… In fact, I'm the only person in my family who hasn't yet taken advantage of the ideas that I'm proposing to you as I write this. Why? Because I enjoy making my own appointments. I enjoy comparing the prices between a Jetblue and a Virgin flight. I prefer to email my blog readers than to have my publicist send generic replies. I still utilize my mom's accountant and secretary, but only because it makes more practical sense for me to do so. When it comes to emailing people and managing my own schedule, nobody can do it better than me.

In the end, you need to come to terms with the fact that you're not superman. You don't know everything and you don't have the experiences and perspectives of everyone on this planet. You're hopefully smart enough to realize this -- recruit the necessary help in whatever part of life you need. By surrounding yourself with accomplished people in their respective fields, you're more likely to see your own success.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore at early collegeBard College at Simon's Rock.

She loves chatting with fellow students, readers, and entrepreneurs, so don't hesitate to email her or message her on AIM! Feel free to subscribe to her blog or stalk her twitter.

All of us presumably live freakishly busy lives. As I write this blog post, I'm counting down the minutes I have left to send out my college applications. There is just SO MUCH STUFF TO DO.

So, I suggest that instead of just creating to-do lists, you create yourself not-to-do lists as well. If you don't do the list thing, it's important to be mindful of how many opportunities you have to do different things. Accepting every opportunity available to you would hinder your ability to do what matters most to you. For example, this year, I felt like I've done way too much. Or at least, I've committed to way too much. At school alone, I'm the treasurer for my student government, a Social Action Service Leader, and student taking a full load of credits (even though I don't need any more to graduate). By trying to run a business at the same time, I was being careless. By trying to add a social life to the mix, I was also being careless. Thus, in order for me and any of you to live happy fulfilling lives, it's important to prioritize the many things you'd like to do with the many things you can and should do.

This may come off as being a ramble, but I think it's serious. Look at your life, write down everything you're doing with the hours per week you spend on it, and prioritize what means most to you. Cross the stupid things off the list. Cross interactions with any dimwits off the list. Your life is hectic as it is; no need to deal with any stupid assholes who critique your everyday existence!

And as of right now, I'm crossing blogging off my list of things to do. That is, until I send in the college applications I'm supposed to be doing.

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com.

Wow, where do I begin?

So I first started out by doing my college apps, but then my laptop battery started to drain. I made my way to the Continental President's Club only to be turned away by the receptionist who told me that I was "too young."

"The age rule of 21 is silly" I said.

"It's not silly. ITS THE LAW!" replied the receptionist.

Jordan from Valleywag suggested that I instead respond, "Do you know who I am? Those rules don't apply to me." HAH! But of course, being the infamous Jessica Mah that I am, I "pulled some strings" and here I am sitting in the President's Lounge enjoying free power for my laptop. Life is good. If only my plane got here on time!

Photo of the Continental President's Lounge, taken by yours truly.

As always, when Jessica Mah is turned away from something, she'll find a way to get in. Look here, here, and here. You know you love me!

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor while partying like a rock star. (and traveling to random cities and checking into hotels while being underage)

Has it ever occurred to anyone that the rich and famous sometimes enjoy being treated like normal people? They're constantly in the spotlight, fighting to maintain their reputation for being whoever they are. It's a mental drain on them. They can't tell who's a true friend because they're such hot sh*t. If you want to be a genuine friend of someone notable, don't set an expectation of that person and don't treat them differently from how you would treat any other *normal* person.

Firstly, it's ignorant and sometimes rude to create an expectation of someone based on minimal information. For example, I first moved to Scarsdale, New York in the beginning of 7th grade. I was on my first school field trip visiting this historical mansion. Before even starting the tour, our two tour guides began poking fun at the fact that we were from "Scarsdale." [Wikipedia] We were walking into the big mansion when they said something among the lines of, "oh.. .you Scarsdale kids should have your chauffeurs driving you to the entrance!" At that point, I was quite confused, but I quickly understood that these tour guides were stereotyping Scarsdale kids for uptight snobby rich kids. What the tour guides didn't know was that most of us were relatively average on the socio-economic scale. They continued poking fun at us throughout the entire tour. My peers were good kids, no matter how wealthy some of them may have been. If anything, creating such an inaccurate expectation would cause us to be snobby kids.

After speaking to many many people, I'm starting to think that the rich and famous may be just as nice if not even nicer than those who poke fun at the rich and famous. There are two types of people: those who are made fun of and those who make fun of others. The former group is starving for attention and wants more as soon as the media starts feeding it to them. Without the spotlight attention, however; they are relatively normal people! The latter group may be insecure. When you make fun of a celeb, you do it for one of several reasons. Either a) you feel bad for the celebrity, b) you need a dinner table conversation, or c) you're insecure with yourself.

Another example! My hair dresser used to work at Barney's New York (a very high-end clothing store) and helped many celebrities build their wardrobes. One of his clients, for example, was the mom of Paris Hilton. At first thought, you'd think that she's an irresponsible mother and snobby rich woman who spends her day complaining about her broken fingernails. However, she's a nice woman. She's a smart woman. She's the type of person who completely removes all expectations you have of the rich and famous. My parents told me how they met Mrs. Hilton during fashion week. My parents and a few of the Hiltons were sitting next to each other and they made friendly without having to mention the crap we read about in the tabloids. Like my last example, I'll hold the belief that creating a (negative) expectation for the rich and famous is a self fulfilling prophesy.

If you want to be a real friend of a rich celebrity, talk about topics non related to what they're famous for. You're obviously free to mention what made them famous, but true friends of celebs have way better things to talk about. Lose the premature expectations you have of people and you'll find yourself making many more friends than you ever have before. :)

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She's currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com, and Jessicamah.com. In her free time, she enjoys the prospect of being an underage angel investor while partying like a rock star.