Everyone has to start somewhere, and it's usually a small start, but what about then end goal?

Which do you think ultimately has the more potential, being an affiliate or being a merchant?

Obviously, there are many differences between the two, but the two that really come to mind are that in general, an affiliate only has to rely on himself, but that also means that he must build the sites and then deal with Google and the other search engines to rank them and then optimize them for the traffic to convert.

A merchant, on the other hand, must rely on himself to create a product (or orchestrate the creation of a product) and then must also rely on others to successfully promote it (fulfillment, paying affiliates, etc. also come into play). However, once you have created a product, it seems like it would be easier to build up a list of affiliates than it would be to build up several dozen websites.

It almost appears to be a-horse-a-piece, but I've heard of several successful affiliates who have also become merchants, so there must be something to it. Being a merhchant seems like it would give you more opportunities for upselling, list-building, cross-selling, etc.

Could someone start out as a merchant (product creator), or would it be better to start as an affiliate and then transition into product development?

What do you all think?