3 MIN READ
September 12, 2026
We know a lot of Everywhere Millionaires: the hardworking, show-up-every-day, work-without-a-participation-trophy generation. Boomers and Gen Z, who built their businesses quietly by showing up every day and created success by sheer will. Their business was everything, where all their energy and all their profits were reinvested. A lot of them weren’t sexy businesses, but hard work paid off, and two decades later they were overnight successes. They are everywhere millionaires highlighted in The American Dream Is Alive:
“You probably know an Everywhere Millionaire, even if you don’t realize it. They’re coaching your child’s soccer team, sitting next to you at a community fundraiser or chatting with you at a neighborhood barbecue. They might be the veterinarian who expanded his office to a regional network of practices, the commercial HVAC contractor whose trucks you see around town or the owner of that local restaurant chain that keeps opening new locations. They’re hiding in plain sight, as ordinary people who run businesses woven into the fabric of everyday life.”
Millionaires Are Everywhere
A county-by-county overview of American wealth
Will millennials and Gen Z buy or take over the businesses? Private equity certainly will, at the right price. We have perhaps the most entrepreneurial generation waiting in the wings to take over these businesses. These are the young Americans who invented the side hustle, a second or third avenue of income in order to create financial stability. But have we wired this generation through social media and instant gratification to succeed in a single, focused endeavor as baby boomers did? Some will have to find out the hard way that not everyone can be a social media influencer.
As boomers retire and sell businesses, younger generations will have an incredible opportunity to ride the coattails of hard work, implement innovation, and use AI to create results where only hard work and sweat were once rewarded. We are starting to see it. The burrito shop down the street was just bought by a 28-year-old from the previous owner of 30 years and now has AI taking phone orders, and the experience is faster and more accurate than it ever was when an employee answered the phone.
The American dream might look different, but it’s still there.