If you are on median earnings, £23,600 in the year to April 2006 (source: National Statistics), then all you need to do to earn a million is work solidly for just under 43 years. You probably won't notice that a million pounds will have passed through your hands but it will have done.
There's an old saying, "Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door!" It is not entirely true. If you build a better mouse trap what is likely to happen is that existing mouse trap builders will, first, do their damnedest to make sure your invention never sees the light of day; if it does they will rubbish it and if you start to make serious inroads into their market they will rip-off your design and claim it as their own.
Does that sound a little jaundiced? Maybe, but all you have to do to realise it is painfully accurate is read the autobiographies of inventors like James Dyson who created the ball-barrow and the eponymous vacuum cleaner ( Against the Odds: An Autobiography by James Dyson, published 1998) and Trevor Bayliss who designed the wind-up radio ( Clock This: My Life as an Inventor by Trevor Bayliss, published 1999).
So, while finding the killer invention and registering key patents is a potential money-maker, you might find it easier to climb the greasy poll to the top inside an organisation rather than outside it. Set your sights on becoming the Chief Executive of a company turning over more than £1 billion a year. According to the Executive Directors Total Remuneration Survey 2006 by executive pay consultancy, Independent Remuneration Solutions (IRS) and Manifest, median total CEO remuneration in such companies in 2005 was £2.1m (including salary, benefits, bonus and options and share schemes), having risen by 9% - faster than average earnings and by three times the rate of inflation.