[paul_houle]

I like the term "software developer" because it's vague about what you actually do: I mean, you could be doing software construction, project management or you could be the owner of the company -- one can be a "web developer" much like a "real estate developer."

Much of my extended family works in the construction business, where there are career paths that go between being an employee and being an owner: you might start out as a teenager putting in fenceposts and nailing shingles onto roofs, then you're working for a big contractor doing roadwork, then you and your brother buy a bulldozer and start digging foundations, putting in sidewalks and curbs and clearing snow at the mall. At some point you might end up owning a few rental properties, and if you make it big you might become the guy who does $20M contracts for roadwork...

Of course there are different paths: I worked for a startup founder who was an MBA -- we pitched an idea to venture capitalists, had it turned down, switched to a plan b we could do on a shoestring. We executed that successfully. I moved on to other things, but he sold the business at a profit a few years later.