Haegwan Kim: What is your definition of success?
Jessica Mah: Building a product that people, including myself, love to use. Making money is a byproduct of making something people want.
HK: Could you give me your opinion on the key element to be a successful entrepreneur?
JM: I’d say it comes down to passion. I love building inDinero — I have so much fun designing the website, designing the product, writing code, talking to customers, watching users play with the product, and figuring out how to make it better. Entrepreneurs who focus on their customers will have no problem getting them to pay money.
HK: What are the advantages and disadvantages of being young as an entrepreneur?
JM: Advantage: You don’t know what you don’t know. Disadvantage: You don’t know what you don’t know. It’s great because you don’t realize how difficult it’s going to be to run your company. You don’t realize how difficult it will be to make real money, and if wealth was your primary motivator, you’d be greatly disappointed. It’s also a disadvantage because young entrepreneurs often get ahead of themselves, think they know far more than they actually do. In the world of entrepreneurship, even the best world-class CEOs are still learning from each other.
HK: Do you think young people are focusing more on making a social impact rather than earning money or being famous compared to a generation ago? I mean, are their values about “success” is changing?
JM: I think it depends on the industry. For example, in the software industry, the focus is on making products people want instead of building personal wealth. I’m sure that there’s a similar trend in other industries, but I couldn’t comment. I think this trend is also society-dependent. In the U.S., it’s acceptable to be an entrepreneur if only because you love what you’re doing. In foreign cultures, the primary focus might be on getting a stable job with a big company. So it all depends.
HK: What would be your advice be to be successful in a general sense?
JM: Try to learn what you don’t know. Read a lot! I keep a long Amazon wish list of books to read, and I usually read at least a few books a week.
Haegwan Kim is a writer who was born in Osaka, Japan in 1989 and grew up near Tokyo where went to a Korean school for 12 years.
