How do I become an individual investor?

Understand who you are, then start looking for knowledge.

investor must have understand how business works, able to forecast potential return and acknowledge the risk.

no matter either stock market, real estate or invest in your own businesses, the principle are the same; want as much money as possible but from the least investment as much as possible.

read the following books.

1) intelligent investor
2) security analysis
3) any book on basic accounting

You're an individual so start investing.

I don't mean to be sarcastic but individual investors are simple individuals who buy independently of an institution such as a mutual fund.

i recommend starting off paper trading, and reading a few books to grasp the basics. Then open an online account with ameritrade, etrade, or scottrade and continue to paper trade but learn the interface of ur broker. then ease into real time investing once u are comfortable and confident

Learn. Here are some sources that will help you tremendously:

1) Mutual Funds for Dummies, by Eric Tyson
2) http://www.invest-for-retirement.com has a free downloadable book
3) http://www.investopedia.com has tutorials

Learn how to think for yourself.