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I’ve heard various sources say that the 2010’s will be the decade of the entrepreneur, and I think that’s true. Globalization is causing more markets to open, while digital distribution and reach is making it easier for the creative class to distribute to those markets.

What this means is that all the layers between the creators of goods and the consumers of those goods are disappearing.

Today, I sell my software to people around the world. I receive emails from people in Europe, Asia, Africa – or my personal favorite, even the tiniest pacific islands thousands of miles from anywhere.

That’s cool.

For Christmas, I bought my wife a pair of baskets for her bicycle. I bought them from Cynthia’s Twigs by suggestion of my wife. I don’t know where she heard of Cynthia, but here’s someone who specializes in creating something: Baskets. Ten years ago, she’d be limited to a tiny storefront in her little town to sell her baskets, and she probably wouldn’t do very well. But today, she sells them online, direct to the consumer. When I placed my order, it was with Cynthia herself.

That’s cool too.

We’re in the midst of a socioeconomic revolution. Perhaps we hear the most about this recession because it’s drastically impacting people who have, in the past, had power, but contributed little to the quality of the actual products we use. Namely executives and middle management. We saw a shakeout of middle managers in the nineties, but it built up again, and in the early naughties, we were back again to professional managers, rather than entrepreneurs and creatives, driving products. I think we’re going through that again, but this time, I think it’ll be permanent.

If you’re not creative, if you’re not entrepreneurial, you’re going to struggle in the new economy.

The executive washroom is gone. If you make your living by pushing papers rather than making something, your days are numbered. If you create things, embrace the new global economy and welcome the exciting world it opens up to you.