I don't know if you are looking to get rich or just looking for money to spend at the mall, but if you have an entrepreneurial spirit, do something with it! Get some experience doing something entrepreneurial at as young an age as possible.
I started several unsuccessful businesses before I was able to run one that would fit anyone's definition of "successful." One of the things that I do is market insurance on the Internet. I have a couple websites where I help clients find and compare medical insurance options in Connecticut and get medical insurance quotes outside of CT. I'm far from rich, but I can see rich from here. Although I made some good decisions along the way, I'd be working for someone else for much less money, if I didn't spend a lot of years working hard and saving my pennies.
The average successful business person failed two or three times before they had their first business success. There are some aspects of business that you can only learn by starting a business.
I think it was E. Howard Hunt (one of the richest men of the 1970s) who said "the secret of success is that there is no secret of success." In another words, we all know that it is largely a manner of hard work. One of the things that gets in way of success is the pursuit of the elusive "secret" of success. While some are straying from the path and looking for a utopian "secret of success" others are working hard and moving forward.
The other thing that gets in the way is not having a dream or a goal worth having. If you believe that all you are going to be is average, you are likely to be right. Don't get the path to success confused with the typical career path that leads nowhere.
Here is a game plan for a teenager with business dreams:
First go out and get that menial job you don't want. Plan to save every penny you can. And while you need to do the best you can at that job in order to learn from it, use the fact that you hate it to motivate you to save as much as possible and to work on other ways of making money.
Second, think about how you can use your talents or other resources to make money more efficiently. Think about it all of the time (except of course when you are studying).
Do you have a particular knowledge about something that gives you an advantage in buying and selling objects in a certain category? People have made small fortunes buying items at garage sales and selling on them Ebay or flea markets. Are there things that your friends buy that you can buy in bulk and sell to them more cheaply?
Whenever you have an idea that needs refining, go to the library. You can get the advice of rich experts for FREE at the library. If there is are secrets to success, the library - not the Internet - is one of them.
Can you run errands for adults? People are busy and some will pay to make them less busy. Perhaps you can grocery shop or run other errands for your clients. You may be able to make a lot more money doing this than you can at the local grocery store. Offer an errand/shopping service as soon as you have access to a car. If you live in a city with good mass transit, you may not even need a car. I think this is what I would do if I were a teenager again and had no money.
Whatever you do make sure that you charge a fair fee. That is one that is fair to you. Find busy people with higher incomes to turn into clients. A woman making $100 an hour will appreciate someone who will charge her $15 an hour to take something off of her to do list. She will profit $85 for every hour you save her. Do the job right and she might tell a friend. Screw it up and she might tell two friends.
Good luck.
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