This sure feels like success. Mr. Michaux is chief executive officer of AvalonBay Communities Inc., which is building Herndon's new residences. The young man nods. But over dinner a few hours later, Mr. Michaux is downright wistful. The nation's newest business heroes are breaking all the rules he has learned in his 30-year career.
Careful planning is regarded as stuffiness, while breezy improvisation is all the rage.
Other senior executives his age can try to ignore the Internet economy or mock it. But Mr. Michaux can't. Both children are chasing the Silicon Valley dream, and their father isn't sure whether to cheer or shudder. Throughout the U.S. economy, traditionalists are butting heads with upstarts who use the Internet to pursue breakneck growth. Columnists and cartoonists are having a field day reducing each world to caricatures.