"The Wellness Revolution", by Paul Zane Pilzer, Empower, December 2007.

More on
The Next Millionaires:

"Crisis or Opportunity - The 6 Myths and Realities of Economic Opportunity," by Paul Zane Pilzer, Your Business Magazine, October 2006.

"Crisis or Opportunity - The 6 Myths and Realities of Economic Opportunity," by Paul Zane Pilzer, Your Business Magazine, July 2006.

"Creating Fortunes in the New Economy," by Paul Zane Pilzer, Success From Home Magazine, September 2005.

"A Tale of Two Industries," by Paul Zane Pilzer, Success From Home Magazine, November 2005.

The Next Millionaires, by Paul Zane Pilzer, Direct Selling News Magazine, June 2005.

The Next Millionaires, by Paul Zane Pilzer, Success at Home Magazine, published March 2005.

A vast amount of wealth is being created over the next ten years. Here's why--and how you can be a part of it.

As an entrepreneur, going into a well-established industry means working harder and putting in a lot more hours to beat the competition—with a smaller chance of great success. But when you go into a new or emerging industry, you get to work smarter instead of harder, and you can be the one distributing that new product that is suddenly in such demand because it improves so many people’s lives.

The thing is, you have to be alert to see what is new and emerging—because once everyone else has noticed, it will no longer be new and emerging!

To get some perspective on where the most accessible fortunes lie in the new economy, let’s look back at two historical examples of surprising new industries—the automobile and the personal computer—and then look ahead at two new industries that are just now on the rise: direct selling or “one-to-one marketing” and wellness.

A Tale of Two Industries

When Henry Ford set out to create the “affordable automobile” in 1908, it seemed ludicrous to most people. Where would you drive them? (There were hardly any paved roads.) How would you maintain them? (There were no such things as gas stations.) Who would have time? (Most people worked six days a week.) And who needed them? (Most people lived near where they worked.)

Automobiles were luxury toys for the rich. A car for the masses? What a ridiculous idea—what would they do with them?

Yet within a few generations, the nation sprouted a highway system, and the automobile had become one of the greatest industrial, technological and sociological forces of the 20th century. From entertainment to industry, dating to demographics, there is not an aspect of human life that was not radically transformed over the last century by the automobile.

The automobile wasn’t just a product—it was a trillion-dollar industry.

Twenty years ago, when Bill Gates and Michael Dell set out to create their own businesses (respectively, Microsoft and Dell Computers), they were both heading in a direction as unlikely as Henry Ford was in the 1900s: They were working in an industry that didn’t yet exist, based on a product that by definition was as ridiculous as Henry Ford’s “affordable auto-mobile.” A decade later, they had become two of the richest men in the world.

The first IBM Personal Computer (PC) came out in 1981. By 1990, PC sales exceeded automobile sales, and by the turn of the century, personal computers had become a trillion-dollar industry. One trillion! The automobile and the PC are excellent examples of new and emerging industries of the early and late 20th century. But that’s the past. What about the 21st century?

Let’s take a look at two of the emerging powerhouse industries of today and tomorrow—direct-selling and wellness.