The biotech firm was to demonstrate options already taken. He already tried the "right way" to monetize his intelligence. And then, as the high school teacher

The biotech firm was to demonstrate options already taken. He already tried the "right way" to monetize his intelligence. And then, as the high school teacher, he has already tried "plan B", which is good enough for most people that fail to succeed in the only moonshot they can afford to take in their lifetimes, but it turns out that the healthcare in "plan B" really sucks. Those aren't just already explored options. They're the control group for Walter's scientific experiment. His hypothesis is that "There is nothing wrong with me. I'm a genius worth millions of dollars, and It's other people that have been holding me back." And the experiment designed to falsify the hypothesis is to just discard all of society's laws and morality and just get the money by any means necessary. The strawman argument of the show is that unfairness in society trickles down and becomes crime. Walter never would have become Heisenberg if his business partners hadn't screwed him out of his share of the company.