Hierarchy of Earnings

I saw a nice post from Ramit Sethi that reminded me of another blog from 2007 I saw that I really liked:

A) http://www.inter-sections.net/2007/10/01/a-hierarchy-of-earning-methods/ (2007 Post on the Hierarchy of Earnings)

B) http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/3-easiest-ways-to-earn-money/ (Ramit Sethi)

The recurring theme for both of these blogs are as follows:

1. Employment aka "trading time for money". Low risk, hard work, has a well defined upper limit to earnings. Work you put in may not represent what you get back (e.g. if you're a corporate climber with a knack for politics, this is definitely for you).
   
2. Consulting aka "trading skills/jobs done for money". Medium risk, but you get to build a network for Productizing (see below). Also, what you put in is usually what you get out.
   
3. Productizing aka "trading time and skill for a product." High risk. Competition, market saturation, you really need to know what you're doing and be a hard core entrepreneur to make it out. There is no upper limit to your earnings.
   
4. Management aka "doing all of the above using someone else's time."
   

IMHO, you can't really climb from a lower number to a higher number (employment to productizing) in a short time. There needs to be a bootstraping process. You need capital and time to do 2 or 3 or 4, so you may need to start with 1. You definitely need to build a network (e.g. via consulting) because that is quite beneficial before you plunge ahead and build a product.

The jist I'm getting is basically-- employment offers you pay, but take it only if you really need it and can tolerate it for decades because if you go that route, you'll be stuck with it all your life.