The Craziest Ways People Have Made A Lot Of Money

Almost everyone has worked an unusual job at some point in their life.

Usually, the reason for working this job was plainly and simply, because you needed the money.

Even if the job itself was anything but lucrative.

Sometimes, the most unexpected of jobs or some surprising financial advice could result in your stumbling upon an unexpected gold mine.

Possibly resulting in your never needing to work ever again.

Redditor RandomReddit0r-14 was curious to hear about the most surprising ways that allowed people to fill their banking accounts to the brim, leading them to ask:

"What’re the craziest ways someone has made a lot of money?"

Pizza Seems To Be The Answer To Everything

"Someone bought the domain name pizza.com for $20 in 1994 and sold it for $2.6 million in 2008."- Algrinder

When Life Gives You Lemons

"Lord Timothy Dexter constantly lucked into lucrative business deals:"

"At the end of the American Revolutionary War, he purchased large amounts of depreciated Continental currency that was worthless at the time…Massachusetts paid its own notes at par."

"He was advised to send bed warmers—used to heat beds in the cold New England winters—for resale in the West Indies, a tropical area."

"This advice was a deliberate ploy by rivals to bankrupt him."

"His ship's captain sold them as ladles to the local molasses industry and made a handsome profit."

"Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia."

"People jokingly told him to 'ship coal to Newcastle'."

"Fortuitously, he did so during a Newcastle miners' strike, and his cargo was sold at a premium."

"He exported Bibles to the East Indies and stray cats to Caribbean islands and again made a profit."

"Eastern missionaries were in need of the Bibles, and the Caribbean welcomed a solution to rat infestation."

"He’s also known for publishing a book which originally had no punctuation."

"Because of complaints, later editions included several pages of punctuation marks to be cut out and added as the reader wishes."- cjt09

"It's Up To You, New York, New York!"

"I was clerking at an estate/tax planning firm in the late 90s."

"My job was to prepare a rough accounting of assets that were to be placed in various trusts and other vehicles for a client that was filthy rich."

"I mean he made Richie Rich and Scrooge McDuck look poor."

"We ended up talking about investments, and he shared the story of how he made his money."

"In 1973, New York City was about to go bankrupt."

"It's bonds were trash, being sold off in a fire sale."

"This guy took out a loan of $100,000 and bought them up as many as he could for pennies on the dollar."

"Keep in mind everyone thought he was nuts."

"But he knew that New York State and the Feds would never let a city like NYC go bankrupt."

"So when the state and feds figured out a loan-financial rescue plan, his bonds went from sh*t to gold."

"He sold them off, making millions, allowing him to pay off the loan debt in a single check."

"It's crazy because the guy wasn't rich."

"To get the hundred grand in cash, he had to leverage every asset he had."

"He risked everything for his belief that NYC wouldn't actually go bankrupt when everyone else thought it would."

"Took Cast Iron Balls."

"CRAZY."- RiffRandellsBF

New York Holiday GIF by Virgin AtlanticGiphy

A Career Change Can Pay Off

"My buddy’s dad realized that with the sudden influx of Japanese cars into N.A."

"In the early ’70s, aftermarket brake pads and clutch pads were going to be in huge demand in, oh, about 4 years."

"Quit his job selling big three parts to start his own company."

"Made 'multi-generational' bank on that bet."- Longjumping_Local910

Click Bait?

"Million dollar homepage."

"Dude just sold a pixel for a dollar and made the resolution a million pixels."- sorryihaveaids

Getting By With A Little Help From Your Friends...

"The guy who wanted to make potato salad and started a gofundme to raise the money for ingredients and received something like 64K in donations."- PineappleFit317

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Joy Is Infectious

"The parents who put their kid on YouTube opening presents as a video."

"Apparently, people like watching others open gifts."- wmzer0mw

A Pet You Don't Need To Feed, Or Clean Is Pretty Marketable...

"Inventing and successfully monetizing the pet rock."- GlitchyMcGlitchFace

Ahead Of The Curve

"A friend of mine from college took a job after graduating with a little company called Microsoft."

"This was in the 1980s."

"She wasn’t paid much but was given stock."

"She is retired and loaded today."- dma1965

8-Bit Pixel GIF by Microsoft CloudGiphy

What People Will Give For A Breath Of Fresh Air

"A Canadian guy, as a joke, put a Ziploc of air from near Banff, Alberta, on eBay for 99 cents."

"When he realized he lost money on shipping, he priced the next one at $168, and somebody bought it."

"He and his partner are now selling a few hundred thousands of dollars of bottled Canadian air every year."- Nanojack

Increased Resale Value

" Taylor swift had a concert in Detroit last summer."

"It was at Ford Field where the Lions play."

"Had a co-worker buy a bunch of Deandre Swift official Lions jerseys for super cheap (he had been traded to Philadelphia last offseason, so they were on clearance) and sell them to a bunch of Swifties downtown before the concert for 100$ a pop."

"Him and his buddy made 40k off of selling these jerseys."

"I wish I could be this creative."- mikeyd7070

Timing is Everything

"Dad had a neighbor across the street at his lake community."

"huge gaudy thing, with statues and fountains, turns out he owned a failing business that made oven mitts or something, as a gesture of niceness he started making socks for paraplegic people for their stubs in between prosthetic limbs."

"In 2000."

"After 9/11 and Iraq war he got govt contract for the prosthetic limb covers and made millions."- crud3

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Keep Your Friends Close...

"A guy who lived in my town had a tiny surf shop where he sold boards, booked in repairs and sold accessories and printed T-Shirts."

"One of the T-Shirt brands he sold was Billabong."

"When Billabong floated on the Aussie stock market in 2000 they realized that he had sole rights to the Billabong name in Europe.

He'd done a deal with the original owners back in the 80s when they were starting out."

"So they had to buy the brand back from him."

"The next day he turned up at his surf shop in a Lamborghini Diablo."- JavaRuby2000

Negotiating Is Key

"I always think about the artist David Choe who painted a mural in Facebook’s headquarters."

"Instead of a normal fee (like $60,000) he instead negotiated getting company stock."

"When Facebook eventually went public his stock was worth $200 million!"

"Crazy story."- Breadparty

Sweet Theft...

"The neighborhood kids take rocks from my yard, paint them and sell me rocks that I already own."- azsoup

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Being entrepreneurial can be all it takes from turning your checking account from overdrawn, to filled with millions of dollars.

If you think you're onto something, keep at it, as it could literally be a million dollar idea.