How to be an upstream developer?

I am a MCSD, but I'm not doing IT now.

Ken.
>-----Original Message-----
>
>I am not expecting answers like "work hard, practice
>more... etc" I hope some one could give some more
tangible
>answers, or milestones on the way to get there.
>
>I deeply admire upstream developers and hope to be there
>some day. If you are MCSD (or MCSD.net) with stable
>position, please share some experience on how to get
>there.
>
>Thanks in advance!
>
>Feng
>.
>

Ken