It depends on your kind of work, some salary earner are very skilled personnels and they earn very high to be considered rich, for example, some tech experts earn as high as $300000 per annum. They can be considered as rich right?

Furthermore, it's not compulsory to own your own business, you can invest into an already running business as long as you're convinced that your on the right track in your investment. Personally, I don't like starting a business from scratch because of it's requirements and my limited availability, so I prefer scouting for good businesses around and becoming a shareholder in it. It's a win win situation after all.