"A Tale of Two Industries," by Paul Zane Pilzer, Success From Home Magazine, July 2006.

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More on
The Next Millionaires:

 "Two Industries Creating The Next Millionaires," by Paul Zane Pilzer, Your Business Magazine, November 2006.

"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.

Network Marketing: Economic Wellness
     The real scope and impact of the wellness revolution goes beyond sheer numbers. It is more than a shift in our state of health and wellbeing: It is a quantum shift in our fundamental expectations. We don’t just expect to live more years—we expect to live better years.
     This same shift in expectations is a strong contributing factor in network marketing as well. In the new economy, the sheer quantity of compensation is no longer enough. People today also demand a better quality of compensation. We don’t simply want money, we want lifestyle. Today’s workers understand that it doesn’t matter how much money you earn if you never get to see your spouse or children, or if you sacrifice your health for your work.
     This is a demand that didn’t exist in the past. During the Industrial Age, the question “Are you truly happy with your life?” would have been greeted by most as self-indulgent nonsense. “Happy?! What a question! I’m making money.”
     Today we want more. Our economy and living standards have grown to the point where we not only expect to make a living, but also expect to have the best possible experience living that life. We don’t want to have to sacrifice family for work, or vice versa. Just as baby boomers want to be younger and healthier, they also want to have the economic freedom to enjoy their continuing state of health. We don’t just want more dollars; we want better dollars. And there is one emerging form of economic enterprise that perfectly fits this description: network marketing.
     The typical network marketer’s benefit statement—“You work when you want, how you want, and with whom you want”— combined with the very real value of a business based on helping others succeed, creates a uniquely attractive package to the 21st century businessperson. And I see a more seamless weaving together of work and family in network marketing than in any other sector of the economy.
     It’s no wonder that network marketing has grown steadily over the past 20 years, increasing more than 91 percent in just the past 10. With more than 13 million Americans and 55 million people worldwide involved, it is today a $100 billion global industry. Yet, as impressive as this is, it’s not hard to see that the real growth has barely begun. Today less than 1 percent of the population is involved in network marketing, yet 175,000 new people are pouring into the profession each week in the United States alone.
     According to Neil Offen, president of the Direct Selling Association, at the current rate of increase, some 200 million people will enter this industry over the next 10 years, effectively quadrupling its current population. In other words, network marketing is already a force to be reckoned with—but there is an even bigger explosion ahead.
The Big Picture
     Let’s put these two trends, wellness and network marketing, into perspective in the context of the overall economy. In 1989, at the

beginning of the worst period of economic decline since the Great Depression of the 1930s, most experts were predicting decades of economic gloom.
     The most popular book in the United States was titled The Great Depression of 1990. That year, at the lowest point of the recession, I wrote a book titled Unlimited Wealth that predicted exactly the opposite: That we were headed into an era of unprecedented growth and opportunity, with seemingly impossible low interest rates and low inflation, and that those who embraced this stood to profit enormously.
          Many in the financial and business community gave the book little credence—that is, until the years ticked by and the forecasts began proving accurate. But there were those who were quick to grasp its significance, including the late Sam Walton and, interestingly, members of the network marketing community, who got the message loud and clear and responded immediately.
     From 1991 to 2001, the world economy doubled in size, enjoying the highest growth rates ever recorded with the lowest interest rates and low inflation. In the United States, household wealth tripled, growing from $13 trillion in 1991 to more than $40 trillion in 2001. Over the same 10 years, the number of U.S. millionaires doubled, jumping from 3.6 million in 1991 to 7.2 million in 2001.
     After the economic crash of 2001, many people felt they missed their chance to be part of the boom of the ’90s. Yet in the few short years since the catastrophic events of 9/11, U.S. household wealth has increased $8 trillion to $48 trillion—an additional 20 percent!
     Today, the U.S. and the world economies look almost identical to how they looked in 1991, except that there are more opportunities for entrepreneurs, due to recent changes in taxation and technology. Based on this history and on current conditions, I project that household wealth will roughly double again in the next 10 years, reaching the $100 trillion mark by 2016.
     This is a fairly conservative projection; after all, this is only a doubling of the U.S. household wealth over the next decade, a figure that more than tripled during the 1990s. What is more startling than that sheer growth is the nature of that growth—because in the course of adding another $52 trillion in household wealth we will also see the creation of more than 10 million new millionaires!

The Next Millionaires
     Who will those new millionaires be? An overwhelming number will be network marketers. Small businesses today account for more than one-half our nation’s economic output and employ more than half our private-sector workforce—and more than half of these are home-based businesses.
     In the past, it was riskier to go into business for yourself than to work for someone else.
     Not anymore. Recent changes in tax law have leveled the playing field—if anything, actually tilting it toward the individual entrepreneur! Congress has responded to a shift in values: People today want to work from home. Now they can.
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