My dad is a Professor at Rice University in Houston, TX. He has a long and (IMHO) distinguished career.
The road to his success is paved with incredibly long hours, an undying passion for his work and choosing to think outside of what was considered accepted doctrine.
Did I mention the long hours? They were long. Very long. They still are. You need to make sure you have the support of your family, otherwise you will not succeed.
Have a look at my dad’s web page - http://www.andrewlian.com/ - his CV is available online and speaks for itself. Be prepared to put in a lot of work.
This isn’t quite true, at least in chemistry. If you have a PhD (of course) and are working in a job in which you can publish a lot you can become a professor, in some cases even a senior hire (hired with tenure, which is more commonly done with hiring full professors away from other universities.)
The problem is that most industrial research does not allow you to publish, or at least to publish most of your work(which is essential to build your reputation and CV.) Some is, with the classic example being Bell Labs, but these days few companies are paying for basic research. On the other hand, if you’ve been doing non-classified work at a National Lab and have published a lot, you’re often quite competitive for professorial positions. I know several people who’ve done just that, including one(who used to be my bosses’ boss) hired as a named chair.
The only problem is that, even at the entry level, these jobs are generally harder to get than an assistant professorship.