If you want to profit as an IT professional you need to have a repeatable process for whatever service or product it is that you provide. You cannot rely on your creativity, talent, or technical knowledge to earn you money. Instead it is your collection of processes that is the cornerstone upon which you build a profitable IT career.
Your talent will help you gain technical knowledge. Your technical knowledge will help you develop your processes. Your creativity will help you invent new processes as you reveal the need for them.
But it is the processes themselves that you will rely upon to earn your income. Your measurable processes that can be improved upon are what you will be paid for. Your repeatable processes that can be marketed, talked about, and promoted are what you can charge others for and earn a salary with.
Do you have a set of processes for designing solutions with? Can you document and share those processes with others? Do you refine those processes in a constant quest for self-improvement? If so, you are an IT professional who has something to offer clients, employers, and your community that is more valuable than hardware or software.
Develop and document your processes. Build an entire personal library of processes. In a world of intellectual property and service driven economies your processes are not just practical – they are profitable!