With accounting how do you guys theorise would be the best way to make money and get to those higher levels? Would it be something like go public accounting for a bit, then private, then create your owns business or go back to the richer public positions and work towards a partnership?
If you were in it solely for the money, you probably wouldn't be wanting to do accounting in my opinion. Even at the upper echelons of accounting say at Senior Partner or CFO levels, the pay will still pale in comparison to a successful businessman or entrepreneur. At the end of the day, accounting and finance is largely a support or back office function even though it may help drive business decisions and strategy.
To answer your question though, I personally would go down the public accounting route first because that's where you learn the most and progress through a structure. This works well since as a revenue generator, it's in the firm's best interests to make sure you are progressing and developing. Then when the time is right (trust me, you'll have a pretty good idea when it's ready for you), you could either keep climbing or make the jump to commercial where you can leverage your experience and add value.