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Some people reject the idea that a school should be thought of as a business. Thinking of schools as a business apparently conjures up haunting images of greased-back hair, “market share”, and Enron. However, where there is the exchange of money for resources, there exists an institution that is influenced by the properties of a business, and any viable business knows that it should listen to its customers. In the business of school, the customers are the students (not the parents), but we usually do a pretty poor job of serving them. We spend a lot of time making the parents happy, the school boards happy, and the teachers happy, but the students who should be receiving the education often get put to the side as a secondary concern. This is problematic for (hopefully) obvious reasons.

There is one customer that is a product of American education to whom I think teachers should pay special attention. Her name is Jessica Mah. Her website states “Jessica started her first internet company at the age of 13, finished high school at the age of 15, and studied computer science at Berkeley. She is a member of the TED conference and has been featured in TechCrunch and Inc. Magazine for her work on internshipIN.com. She's now the founder and product architect of Indinero.com (a company that helps businesses manage finances).” So in case you missed it, she graduated from high school early and she continues to dominate college while ALSO running a successful business that she started. Is it just me or does anybody else think that this independence, entrepreneurial savvy, and desire to learn is something we should be striving to cultivate in our students?

When I run my own school (if I ever get around to it), I’m going to talk to people like Jessica. People like her are going to be the fundamental rudders that help steer the ship to uncharted lands. Instead of waiting for the day when I run my own school, I figured I would ask her some questions now, and she had some profound insights.

1. You have a chronic history as a serial entrepreneur. Did you have any experiences in school that helped prepare you for this challenge of starting and running your own business, or did you just learn it all on your own?

I'll credit my knowledge to the combination of school, friends, mentors, internships, books and books. While most entrepreneurs give little credit to their education, I think it has all to do for why I'm here today. Berkeley as an institution has helped us find free office space, over $40k in free grant money, and the school community (+ alumni) were crucial to my meeting my team members. But going way back to elementary school, I remember that math/science were heavily encouraged, and my entrepreneurial endeavors were for the most part encouraged too.

2. Students always ask the question: “WHY do I have to learn THIS?” You strike me as someone who asked that question at many points in your schooling, so my question is: Are there any topics or skills that you resisted learning while in school but now find yourself being glad that you learned it?

Oh god yes! Throughout elementary school, I hated English. It seemed stupid to read meaningless books on fiction, even stupider to analyze the characters, and nobody was able to give me a good reason as to why it would be helpful. Why is writing so important if I intend on being a programmer one day? And here I am, writing on my blog, writing up grant applications for my company, and putting my writing skills to work!

I wish teachers had a greater emphasis on practical use cases for their teachings. Many of them are so swept in academia they they teach purely out of passion, and don't know themselves the purpose of learning the material. If my English teacher in 7th grade told me that it would help me in the world of business, I'm sure I would have paid more attention in class.

3. As a business owner, you hire and fire employees. What are the two or three most important qualities that you desire in your employees (either ones that you have hired or ones that you may hire further down the road)? How well are schools cultivating these qualities in students across the country?

1) Smart and gets stuff done
2) Fast learner
3) Integrity

We can measure if people are smart to a pretty reasonable level, but figure out if they're capable of getting things done fast is what's equally as important. And unfortunately, it's hard to measure this in just an interview. So we put everyone through a "free-trial", where we put their skills to the test, and see how much work they get done on their own.

It's unreasonable to expect that people know everything coming straight from school. College provides for an excellent foundation, but it's a person’s ability to expand on that foundation which truly matters. And since the computer science curriculum is completely based on learning new technologies in short time-frames, I trust that most of my classmates are fast learners.

And the last most important thing is integrity... being able to trust this person, depend on this person, and know that they'll keep their promises. There's more to a person than their technical skills!

The biggest problem is finding smart people who get stuff done, because many are stuck in the trap of academia. They know how to make school projects, "plan" out large-scale projects, make proposals, but rarely have they put any of these ideas to the test. Seeing people work on school projects is far less interesting than seeing people work on their own independent projects, because how are we to know how creative they are in achieving their goals? This is probably the biggest issue with hiring people fresh out of college.

4. It is your chance to sound off. What advice would you give to teachers who want to become better teachers? What did you value the most (or the least) about your teachers and what can be done to increase their impact on students like yourself?

I think teachers can do so much more with very little effort. Something as simple as making your lessons relevant to the real world would be tremendously helpful. Encourage students to work on their own independent projects, perhaps even as part of the class. Back in my elementary school, all of our teachers did that, and all of my peers were incredibly engaged. I feel fortunate to have had teachers who encouraged learning "outside of the classroom."

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Jessica has many more engaging thoughts on her blog. I highly recommend the following articles: schools as business, school kills creativity, and this great post about what Jessica has done and some of her motivations guiding her work. It will probably get you depressed, however, because you’ll realize how little you have done compared to what she has done in 19 years on this earth. The thing I value most: her humility that oozes from her thankfulness.

J-money, you are an all-star. Keep up the good work!