There are two routes, the key differentiator is are the resulting name hierarchy public (like .com) or is it yours and jealously to be guarded from all others (like .mil) ?
If the former ICANN will also require you to do a bunch of legal work to ensure that when you fail (because realistically you will) any names can be scooped up and preserved by a new operator of the TLD.
If the latter you're likely to have a tougher time defending why you should own this, unless you're a huge global brand.
Then you need to either spend a lot of money (again estimate $1M a year at least at first) yourself on infrastructure to serve your TLD, or you need to pay somebody else with relevant experience to do it for you.
A surprising number of companies bought vanity TLDs which they then don't use at all because of course they're much less convenient than a short name in an existing TLD. For example the KerryProperties TLD isn't used at all, kerryprops.com is much easier.
Why so much money?