Success in today's IT environment requires you to view your career as a business endeavor. In this book, you'll learn how to become an entrepreneur, driving your career in the direction of your choosing. You'll learn how to approach, build your software and development career, by a step-by-step system, following the same path that one would follow in building, marketing, and selling a product. The choices you make about which technologies to focus on and which business domains to master, have at least as much impact on your success, as your technical knowledge itself - don't let those choices be accidental. We'll walk you through all aspects of the decision making process, so you can ensure that you're investing your time and energy in the right areas. You will develop a structured plan for keeping your skills up to date, so that you can compete with both the growing stable of developers in so-called "low-cost countries" as well as your higher-priced local peers. You'll learn how to shift your skill set up the value chain, from offshore-ready commodity to one in high demand. As with any product or service, if nobody knows what you're selling, nobody will buy. We'll walk through the often-neglected world of marketing, and we'll create a plan for you to market yourself both inside your company and to the industry in general. Like it or not, the IT career landscape has changed. This is your handbook to avoid being left behind.