[RainMan]

You forgot the 3rd way ... work for yourself.

With your two methods, there are no guarantees to making money for yourself, and I am proof of that. Many times in my life I have made millions for my employers, to the point where they did not need any other salesmen for the next couple of years (the backlog of business was that great), only to be laid off shortly thereafter so that they would not have to pay me my commissions. After the last time that happened, I vowed never again ... and now I am working on building my own fortune.

[discostu]

No. Even people who work for themselves need to be good enough at the job to have people use them not somebody else, ie hard to replace. And a lot of folks who work for themselves their services make other people money, people on the PGA tour are self employed, and the tour makes a lot more money on their efforts than they do.