- Imagine if someone got rich
off of selling a pet rock. (laughs) Keep watching. So we live in a world now
that makes earning money easier than ever. With the Internet and other technologies, we have many more avenues to pursue other than the traditional nine to five. But that also means that people who have hairbrained schemes to
get rich can actually make it happen. In fact, some people have
used the most brilliant as well as the most
insane ways to get rich. Basically, the following
stories are either going to make you shake
your head in disbelief or ask why you didn't
come up with it yourself in the first place. So without further ado, here
are 10 unbelievable ways people got rich. Number one is the thrift store find. In 2007, Michael Sparks
was browsing through his local thrift store
in Nashville, Tennessee when a rolled up document caught his eye. Knowing a thing or two
about American history, he purchased the parchment for $2.48. Later that week, the
document was authenticated and it was discovered that it was in fact an original copy of the
Declaration of Independence. He then sold it for $477,000. Out of the 201 copies that
were originally printed in 1820, only 31 have
ever been discovered. This means that if you're
an American garage sale hunter, you could possibly
find a copy yourself. Just be careful that you're not swindled into buying something
that isn't what they're advertising. "Excuse me, is this really
Thomas Jefferson's toe nail?" "Yes, yes it is and it's only $10." "Sold!" Don't be that guy. Number two is the
million dollar home page. In August 2005, as Alex Tu was preparing for his first year at the
University of Nottingham, he came up with a
brilliant idea to help pay for the cost of his education. He set up a website, bought the domain, and laid out an area of one million pixels and sold them at $1 each. Ads ranged from online
casinos to American brands like Target and even the
rock group Tenacious D. After putting the final
1,000 blocks on eBay and earning even more,
within five short months, every single pixel had
been sold and two raked in a whopping, prepare yourself, $1,037,100. Kind of makes you wonder what you're doing with your life, doesn't it? Number three is the three
million dollar baseball. Phil Ozersky, a long time Cardinals fan was attending the final game of the 1998 baseball season when Marc Maguire hit his 70th home run. At the time, the MLB was
consumed with the homerun race between Maguire and Sammy Sosa and the ball that broke the record plopped right out of the sky into Phil's hands. The Cardinal officials
knew the value of the ball and attempted to actually
force Phil into handing it over but he held onto it and
not only that, but later auctioned it off for a
whopping three million freaking dollars! Could you imagine the rush that he felt when it fell in his lap? "Wow, that was a great hit, oh my God! "This ball is mine, get
away, I will bite you. "I will eat you." Number four is the yellow smiley face. When Harvey Ball first
drew the yellow smiley face back in 1963 for a
client of his PR company, he only charged $45 for the creation. Unfortunately, he never
applied for a trademark of the copyright for the
smiley but two brothers named Bernard and Murray
Spain saw the potential in it and did just that. They attached the phrase,
"Have a Happy Day," to it, later changing
it to "Have a Nice Day." And then began slapping
the image on everything from buttons to sweatshirts,
stickers and posters. The yellow smiley swept America in 1971 and soon the world. $50 million in revenue
was made by the Spain brothers in just a few short years. As for Harvey Ball,
well, believe it or not, he kept smiling and never made mention of any regrets. Never made mention of, which doesn't mean that he wasn't suffering
horribly from realizing that he was stupid, very, very stupid for not capitalizing on this. "The yellow smiley, yeah, I invented that. "Didn't make any money off of it "but, hey, still smiling,
happy every day." (cries) Number five is the right slice of pizza. In 1994, when the Internet was still in its infancy, Chris Clark from Maryland scooped up the domain pizza.com. Now to him, at best he
thought that one day it might attract him a pizza parlor for his business consulting company. He ended up maintaining the domain for $20 a year for 14 years until one day in 2008, he put it up for
auction with a starting bid of $100. The second that pizza.com
was listed for sale, every single pizza company in the world went crazy for it and
a bidding war ensued. Chris eventually netted
for himself a hot slice of $2.6 million dollars. Now that's thinking ahead, I would hate to be the company that
actually bought that. That's a lot of money. Wait, did I reserve Matthew Santoro.com? Oh my God. Number six is the wacky wall walker. Before Ken Hakuda would become known as Mr. Fad, an American
inventor and television personality, he was an
entrepreneur looking for his shot at the big time. His breakthrough came in
the mail when his mother gifted his children some
sticky toys from Japan. Ken found himself fascinated with the toy and purchased the rights to the product in 1983 for $5,000. He began selling them
locally in Washington, D.C. under the name Wacky
Wall Walkers and sales were dismal until a reporter
from the Washington Post also found some appeal in the toy. The buzz from a single article began one of the greatest marketing
fads of all time. Within just a few months,
more than 240 million of them were sold, netting
Ken around $80 million. Is that really all it takes
is just a single shout out? Because I'm selling
Matthew Santoro bald caps at five, fifty dollars each. Fifty bucks if you want to be a wild baldo just like me. So, hit me up. Number seven is the world's luckiest cafeteria chef. Chef Charlie Herrs was
the 53rd hire at a tech start up company and had his interview above a bicycle shop. In the interview, they
didn't offer him much. The salary, in fact, was
actually half of what he was currently earning but there were health benefits and stock options. And of course, the
owners seemed fun loving and interesting guys. So he took the job and after
10 years left the company with a cool $26 million in his pocket. What was this company? The company was Google. So it just goes to show you, just because something isn't popular right now, doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in it. Like those bald caps I'm
selling, I'm just saying! Number eight is the pet rock. You thought I was kidding. The idea for the pet rock was conceived by marketing executive
Gary Doll in the 1970's while he was in a bar with his friends who were all talking
about the difficulties of keeping up a housepet. A light went off in his head and he began selling rocks as hassle free pets. Complete with a pet training manual and a cardboard box,
fashioned after a pet carrier each for $3.95 a piece. And unbelievably, the
rocks were an instant hit and turned into one of the
greatest fads of all time. Gary managed to sell over
1.5 million pet rocks. Oh, and he did this in only a single year, netting him $15 million in total. Damn, it's that easy? Um, I will soon have for
sale pet ghosts in a jar. No, it's not just air,
there's ghouls in there so don't ever open it
'cause they'll haunt you. Okay, don't open it. It's not just air. There's ghouls. Ghosts and goblins, invisible, in the jar. $5.99. Number nine is the cardboard box queen. Jane Yen started her own company in 1994 on her savings of only $3,800. She saw an opportunity with China becoming a global exporter there
would be a large demand for cardboard boxes. So she began purchasing paper from America at low prices and convert
it into a higher price product and sold it back
to them at a premium. Her genius business savvy
made her one of the richest people in China and in
2010, she was the richest self-made woman billionaire in the world, holding more than $4.6 billion. Off of cardboard? Are you kidding me? These stories are just
making me reevaluate my whole life. And number 10 is the
serial lottery winner. Experts state that the chances of winning four lottery jackpots in a row is more than one in 18 septillion
but for Joan Ginther, from Las Vegas, the odds seem to always be in her favor. On a trip home to Texas
where she visited family, she popped into a lottery
store back in 1993 and won $5.4 million in that lottery. Then she did it again in 2006, this time winning $2 million. Then, in 2008, she wins again
for $3 million this time. Seriously? How can somebody win that many times in a row, oh wait she won again. In 2010, she won the biggest jackpot yet. $10 million! Now naturally, there
is a ton of speculation surrounding Joan's methods given the fact that she refuses to
speak about her good luck and also has a PhD from
Stanford in mathematics. There's a lot of theories
out there but obviously she knows something about
statistics that the rest of us don't. Man, I took statistics in
university and they never covered this. I feel like I got ripped off. And that's it for this video guys. If you enjoyed it, remember to subscribe to my channel and other than that, I will see you in the next one, same bat time, same bat channel. Love you guys. Bye!
