The Most Absurd Ways People Have Gotten Rich Quick

For many hard-working people, having just one steady job doesn't cut anymore in today's economy if they're trying to raise a family or try to make it living in a big city.

Some people look for side hustles or start businesses to make ends meet.

And then some just happen to be at the right time or place or came upon an opportunity where earning an exorbitant amount of cash came easy.

Do such opportunities exist?

According to strangers online, there are, and they provided examples when Random_S0ul asked:

"What’s the most ridiculously absurd way you’ve seen someone get rich in no time?"

These aren't your typical jobs.

Making Some Noise

bv

– Patient_Fruit_826

Home Improvement Show

"A day time TV show many years ago about flipping repossessed houses bought at auction where they showed three folks/couples buying a house, fixing it up and selling it. One chap bought two houses but did nothing to them, didn't even clean them. All he did was sell them at market value and made a killing since the auction price was peanuts."

"The show edited it as if he was new to the flipping house game so maybe he'd have a better go the next episode even though his profit was more than the other folks."

"The next two episode he did the same thing with another seven houses before the production team realised that he had no intention of doing anything to any house and was only there to use the production crew's contacts and for them to do a lot of the legwork as required for the show."

"He made over £100k+ [USD 130k+] on nine houses with doing barely anything. The show stopping dealing with him after that."

– darybrain

Niche Product

"Someone literally sold 'pet rocks' in the 70s and became a millionaire... I’m clearly overthinking everything in life."

– ComprehensiveSun5442

"Bro had an idea, patented it, pitched it to the owner of gopro, got 2.3 million for it."

"hes a good guy, but i am still a bit jealous."

– NOT000

Pixel Salesman

"Guy from the UK who created a webpage with a million pixels, and put each pixel on sale for advertising. Companies went nuts over it, buying up every page. It was genius really. The website was still functional last I checked, though all the links were dead."

"Think they guy ended up going to Silicon Valley and starting up Calm. Obviously a super bright dude."

– Bombadombaway

Some people tapped into their respective potential.

The Jokester

"I went to high school with Bo Burnham. One day he had a youtube video go viral. Like a week later he was represented by the same agent as Drew Carey."

"Ironically, the kid who joked about being unpopular was suddenly really popular due to the success from his jokes."

– Arbiter_89

The Inventor

"My uncle invented micromachines. Little toy cars in the early 90’s. EDIT: I will show him this and all the people he brought joy to when I see my uncle next."

– 022ydagr8

Biological Discovery

"Okay, so the university lecturer at my university was a deep sea biologist. He was given a sea slug collected on an automated underwater vehicle dive."

"In the mucus of this sea slug, he isolated a bacteria that produced a protein-digesting enzyme that worked at low temperatures. He sold this biological enzyme to one of the big companies, I think, proctor and gamble."

"The whole 'wash your clothes at 30" low temperatures' biological washing powder etc. that was him."

"Went from driving a Ford escort to a Jaguar and retired in about a week."

– JAM88CAM

Going Viral

"A small-time YouTuber (think under 500 subscribers) I personally knew used to make RuneScape videos. One day he decided to change things up and do Creepypasta readings. Bam, went viral and had 10,000 subscribers in two videos. Last I checked he's just shy of a million."

– Kent_Knifen

Dirty Laundry

"Friend of mine started selling her socks after wearing them at her retail job. She started making $7k a month just from that alone."

– Big-Routine222

The future is really a crapshoot.

The Rise And Fall

"He and his brother developed an online game where two cowboys walk away from each other, then turn around and shoot and one dies."

"The game was entirely automated. You could just bet money on who wins, and if you got it right you would x1.95 your money, with 5% going to the house."

"They got unfathomably rich. Saw them race sports cars around the world. Last time I checked though, they went to prison for tax fraud."

– CeterumCenseo85

Validating Transactions
 

"Forgot that he mined a dozen or so Bitcoins over a decade ago on his spare notebook."

"Remembered three years ago that he still had that laptop in a drawer."

– sakatan

"A coworker's husband mined them very early on and cashed in most of them at the first little spike to buy a really good PC. He held on to 5 of them and was kicking himself, but they were still able to buy a 1mil+ house years back."

– ragecuddles

Injury Compensation

"A classmate in high school climbed and subsequently fell off a electric transmission tower and got hurt pretty bad. Even though he was an idiot, because there were no warning signs or a fence around it he received a bunch of money as a legal settlement from the electric company."

– Herr_Poopypants

Going Public

"A friend was employee number 8 at a tech startup and resigned after they listed on the stock exchange with $35 million."

– arouseandbrowse

"I know a guy like that, got shares as part of his comp and put in his own money when they IPO'd. I told him he was nuts, he's worth millions now though so he got the last laugh."

– kani_kani_katoa

Cash Grab

"Not rich but my friend told me about how he went to the strip club one night downtown. He stayed until 3:00 a.m. and then when he left, he walked outside to find a ton of $20 bills just blowing in the wind down the street, so he grabbed as much as he could. He couldn't explain where it came from, no one was around at the time and the streets were empty."

– batmanineurope

"A friend of a friend was at the rubbish dump with a friend and found a bag filled with a bunch of cash. They split it and he hid it under his bed then used it to pay tradies and stuff. Very dodgy but sounds like something from a book."

– MillyZeusy

Except for those who literally stumbled upon a stash of unattended cash, some of the examples above are of people with drive and abilities that have allowed them to forge paths to get them to a place where there is an opportunity

Of course, luck also had a lot to do with their successes. But that's something none of us can always bank on.

However, you'd be surprised at the opportunities when you put yourself out there.

Setting high expectations well above our limits may never make us millionaires, but sometimes, it could be all we need to get there.