On the other hand....
(there are five fingers)
In terms of advancing in the SCUBA Instructional world, Rich is absolutely right. But~ there are
other ways to make money with SCUBA gear.
Understand this: many commercial applications
require you to be insured, and that will likely require experience and certifications of all sorts. Not all job opportunities have this requirement, in fact- for many years men have worked underwater with no certifications whatsoever. Imagine that!
You are also limited in terms of safety, not only by the insurance indemnification issue, but also in terms of empirical safety skills- you're new at this, so you don't know how much trouble you are exposing yourself to... very innocently.
All that aside- what can you do? You did see the recent "Logging Reality" shows on TV? On one extreme example of
how not to make money while diving, the good old boys got their c-cards and jumped into the river and started
wrasslin' with waterlogged timbers... in current. Neither a c-card or IQ was required. See AX Men at
http://www.history.com/content/axmen/meet-the-loggers/s-s-aqua-logging
You can pick golf balls or clean yacht hulls, maybe even the bottom of a pool. All of these seemingly simple activities require low-level, yet specialized skills. And yes- a clever fellow could croak himself even doing this.
It all boils down to this: most good money gigs in industrial/commercial diving require specialized courses and training, documents demonstrating eligibility for certification by their insurers, the usual legal stuff. Jobs like this are tough, for the young and
very fit, and really wear on your body- but for a while, they do pay well.
Nuclear Plants will employ "jump divers". They will pay you for 6 months where you will be certified to dive and then for the next 170 days you will repeat a training drill for eight hours a day. At the end of that training, you will plop into a pool of
glowing warm water and do a three minute dive (to fix some widget or the other) whereupon you will collect your paycheck. Adios, we'll see you every 6 months for the next five years for your free chest x-ray.
HOW TO BECOME WEALTHY THROUGH THE DIVING INDUSTRY:
As far as long term, lifetime occupations in the underwater world, ScubaRich states the obvious:
get into the ladder of diver education. Here's my advice: Open your own dive shop and cater to wealthy young socialites. When one comes along that isn't a total pita, check her bank account and then marry her. This works.