Feet First From kid entrepreneur to head of a $145 million sporting-goods empire, Michael Rubin has succeeded by staying one step ahead.

As we near 2000, the spectrum of twentysomething iconography hasshifted from cliché-laden labels and imagery to a focus on theastounding amount of power America's youth possesses.Slackerdom has become passé as an increasing number of youngtrailblazers infiltrate Silicon Valley to work atop makeshift desksand morph their Internet ventures into the next big thing.

Then you have today's rarity: those who build a $145 millioncompany first and then delve into the Net for"evolutionary" purposes. Meet Michael Rubin, 27, who didjust that. Formerly president and CEO of athletic andoutdoor-footwear manufacturing company Global Sports Inc. in thePhiladelphia suburb King of Prussia, Rubin recently decided to goe-commerce with a new sporting-goods company--Global SportsInteractive--effectively taking a stake in a much, muchlarger picture.

Rubin's a fast-talking, no-frills, get-to-the-point kind ofguy, and because he's been an entrepreneur since the time heshould've been playing with Hot Wheels, it's no wonderhe's good at the game. Rather than recount a schoolyard tale orthe time he finally got $1 for a lost tooth, Rubin remembers age 8as the year his entrepreneurial nature took shape. "I alwayshad a passion for business growing up, whether it was sellingstationery or shoveling driveways with 10 kids working forme," he says. Entrepreneurship became a consuming hobby forRubin--and his interest in it occasionally worried his psychiatristmother and veterinarian father. Rubin's embrace of themover-and-shaker mentality and his strong desire to earn a buckseemed somewhat peculiar at such a young age.