2001: An Entrepreneurial Odyssey

One thing is certain: Entrepreneurs are getting younger. Granted, your baby isn't likely to be birthed with a balance sheet in hand, but just give the little guy a few years. Your teenager may someday attend a business magnet school, such as the High School of Economics and Finance in New York City, or perhaps your children will start their own companies using their allowance.(See "New Money.")

But this is only the beginning. "You're going to see a huge explosion of entrepreneurial businesses in the next century," asserts Celente, who heads the Trends Research Institute, edits the quarterly Trends Journal and authored Trends 2000 (Warner Books). Lighting the fuse for this explosion is the Millennium Generation, the children born after 1980, says Celente. "Their parents come home from work," Celente says, "and the kids hear the horror stories: `The reason I'm home late is they fired five people at work and I'm picking up the slack.' And the children are saying, `I never want to work for a corporation.' "

This article was originally published in the April 1999 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: 2001: An Entrepreneurial Odyssey.