Of all the entrepreneurial opportunities available today, one of the most important is direct selling, also called network marketing.

The early pioneers of both wellness and network marketing were motivated by the sense that it was possible to create a better life than the conventional routes offered - better personal health and better economic health, respectively. Now the 'alternatives' of yesterday have become the economic powerhouses of today and tomorrow.

In today's world, working for yourself is actually the safer route, and working for a corporation has become the riskier proposition.

Home-based businesses are one of the fastest-growing segments in our economy, and that trend will only continue, as the age of the corporation, which began barely a century ago, now gives way to the age of the entrepreneur.

It is thus hardly surprising that so many of the great minds in recent history have concerned themselves with economic matters. Indeed, they have come to regard economic theory in precisely the same way the ancient philosophers viewed the heavens - as the key to understanding and controlling our fate.

The best system I've ever seen for intellectual distribution is the direct selling business-also known as one-to-one marketing, network marketing, referral marketing or relationship marketing.

Amazingly, only 15 percent of U.S. adults engage in regular vigorous physical activity, and 60 percent report getting effectively no exercise at all from regular or sustained leisure time activity.