I got the idea to write about my predictions of the future of my generation from a question my friend asked me this past weekend.  My friend and I stayed in Chicago over the weekend, and we went to another friend’s wedding in a western suburb on Saturday evening.  During the cab ride, my friend asked me the following question:

“Do you think this next generation is going to be lazy?”

I didn’t have the best answer at the time.  But it prompted me to step back and think long and hard about what role my generation and my children’s generation will play in history.   

Predictions of the future graphic 1After thinking about this question for a few minutes during my commute to work this morning, I concluded that my generation and my daughter’s generation not only are not lazy, but they are going to play a very large and significant role in the future of this country and the world.

We Are The Pioneers Of The Internet Age

I have been blogging for 6 short months, and the experience as opened me up to a world of ideas and opportunities. 

The past, or my parents’ generation, made a living by going to a job between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.  That was the conventional way of making money.  The few individuals who were entrepreneurs started their own businesses by opening up a physical brick-and-mortar store and selling a product or service.  Either way, making money “off-line” was the traditional way to make your living. 

What I have discovered in 6 months of blogging is that the money-making way of the future is VERY different.  In the future, the traditional way of making money will be through an online business of some sort. 

My generation (I am 28 years old) is currently establishing a new, entrepreneurial, and passive method for making a living online.  We’re laying the groundwork for a revolutionary change in day-to-day sustenance.  My daughter’s generation will pick up that foundation and launch a full-fledged revolution that will change the world forever.  Thus, in a way, I and anyone else who is involved in money-making ventures online–we’re pioneers of this Internet age that is flourishing before our eyes.

Predictions of the future graphic 2

A New Industrial Revolution

In fact, what is happening right now (the growth of online businesses and online money-making opportunities) is very similar to what happened before the Industrial Revolution.  Scott Phelps (of Make Money Facts introduced this idea in a guest post entitled Why Are You Obsessed With Moneymaking Ideas? on TylerCruz.com. 

“Before the industrial revolution,” writes Phelps, ”most of the population had to find their own way to make money.  That could have been farming or ranching.  It might be owning an orchard or developing a trade like blacksmithing or watch making.” 

“After the industrial revolution began,” he continues, “hard-pressed individuals took jobs when financial difficulty came, but it didn’t dim the desire most had to get back to a self-directed job.”

What Phelps is saying is that we all have this entrepreneurial burst inside us.  And when the landscape is blank and limitless (as it was before industries began to flourish), people found ways to make a living on their own. 

Today, that same limitless, blank slate exists.  The Internet is an open space ripe with opportunity, and it has provided the foundation for individuals to tap into their entrepreneurial, “self-directed” selves.  Moreover, in today’s world where companies and businesses continue to outsource jobs and where the traditional 9-to-5 job is becoming a bit scarce, people have had to “find their own way to make money,” much like the individuals did in the pre-Industrial age. 

The area that provides opportunities for those who want to find their own way and for those who need to find their own way is the Internet.

Predictions of the Future?  Prosperity via the InternetPredictions of the future graphic 3

My generation of online businessmen, bloggers, webmasters, and affiliate marketers is laying the seeds for a new Industrial (or Internet) Revolution.  For some of us, we want to find our own way–a different way–to make money.  Others who lose their jobs in an increasingly automated world have to find a way to make money. 

We’ve all come together as teenagers, 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings to form a generation that is laying the groundwork for a new revolution, but one that is more technologically advanced than its Industrial predecessor.

My daughter’s generation is going to seize that groundwork and that foundation and run with it in a full-fledged Internet takeover of this country and the globe.  The real potential of the Internet won’t be reached until later in my life and beyond.  A fast-paced, global economy build on online businesses and marketing will be a sight to behold.

So, coming full circle, I don’t think this generation and the next one are or will be “lazy.”  I simply think it’s a different mindset.  Instead of the 9-to-5 perspective, online entrepreneurs look at making money as a goal that not only should not, but does not, require much effort.

That’s not laziness.  That’s just incredible progress.

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