25 Stories Of People Who Became Rich In The Most Unexpected Ways

Who doesn’t want to stumble across unexpected money? Even if The Notorious B.I.G famously and catchily rapped, “Mo’ money, o’ problems,” that’s not the worst problem to have. It’s not as if we can live a life completely free of problems anyway, so why not let money be one of them?

#1

Image source: Historical_Wear4558, Andrej Lišakov

I knew a kid in high school that was in on the beer can collecting trend. He entered an abandoned house and found ten of the rarest cans in the world. There were only like five of this brand in the entire nation so he had to sell them slowly so as not to tank the value. I believe he made around $800,000 in 1978 at the age of 16.

#2

Image source: No-Tumbleweed-2709, fabrikasimf

Had a distant family member who worked at a gas station Cafe, had an old grumpy man who used to come in and have his coffee every day, and nobody liked him. She went out of her way to be friendly and ask him how his day was, would sit and chat with him when it wasn’t busy (They lived rurally so sometimes there was nobody coming in for a long time). One day he passed, and she learned she was to inherit his money, which was hundreds of thousands of dollars. He had no family, and had appreciated her kindness, so he left her everything. She used the money to build a house and purchase a construction company.

#3

The guy who invented Smartfood (popcorn) lives in my town and we have some mutual friends. The “unexpected” part of his story is that popcorn wasn’t what he was originally marketing. He had come up with an idea for a resealable chip bag. When he was pitching his product to investors he made some popcorn to put in the bags to show how the bags worked. The company hated the bag concept. Why would they want to prevent chips from going stale? That would cut into the sales of more chips. But they loved his popcorn! A blend of popcorn and parmesan cheese. PepsiCo now owns Smartfood and he’s worth millions. .

Image source: Agua_Frecuentemente

#4

Image source: livinalieontimna, Getty Images

Dude I know had a small printing business. Covid hit and the government threw millions at sign printing. He landed one of the contracts. Silly time that was. He’s playing golf everyday now.

#5

Image source: Every-Incident7659, Katia Miasoed

Not wealthy, but a few years ago, Ring doorbell had a contest of who could film the best halloween video on their ring camera. My friend and her husband spent all weekend filming one just for fun and submitted it. They ended up winning the whole national contest and $100k of prize money.

Couldn’t have happened to a better couple either. Theyre two of the nicest people you’ll ever meet. Neither works in a terribly high paying field, so the money allowed them to buy a nice, modest house in a good neighborhood near downtown. We were all very happy for them.

#6

Image source: cameron0208, micheile henderson

My ex’s mom and stepdad started taking care of this elderly couple on their street—taking them meals, doing things around the house, taking them to doctor’s appointments, etc. Eventually, the couple passed away. My ex’s mom and stepdad got a call from an attorney a little while after letting them know that the couple had left everything to them. They didn’t think much of it because they were poor and lived in a small house in a poor neighborhood, just as the elderly couple did. The elderly couple didn’t have anything nice—old, beat-up cars, small house, didn’t go on any expensive vacations or anything. They lived basically right above poverty level.

Then the lawyer told them the couple had left them tens of millions of dollars…Don’t know the exact sum, but that’s what they told us, tens of millions.

They live a very different life now.

#7

My uncle invented micro machines. Little toy cars in the early 90’s.

Image source: FlowerHalima

#8

Image source: JetPlane_88, Frank Flores

Friend trademarked a name and bought a domain for their small business.

A major sneaker company developed a shoe with the same name and bought all his IP for a substantial sum (he didn’t disclose exact amount).

My friend took some of that money and invested in his brother-in-law’s business. It was some kind of management software for industrial marine commerce.

My friend made millions.

He is an average guy, not particularly ambitious or intelligent or business savvy. Just a good guy with good luck.

#9

Image source: kor0na, Getty Images

One of their old songs that they made more than a decade ago suddenly became popular on TikTok. Went from living on the bare minimum with roommates to start having to ask around for how to invest money.

#10

Image source: cocovacado, Liam Kevan

My mom’s friend’s daughter became a millionaire overnight in a weird way.
The girl’s dad walked out on her family when she was in kindergarten, she did not have a relationship with him and he didn’t pay child support or visit or any of what a father should do. he just left and the mom really had to struggle to make ends meet for years.
When the girl was finishing high school, the dad got hit and by a FedEx Truck and she was left with a million dollar settlement.

#11

I read about a random guy (Spain I think) who saw that a funeral was going ahead without any mourners, so he stayed to pay respects. Then inherited the whole estate because the deceased was a curmudgeonly loner with a sense of humour, who bequeathed his estate equally among the mourners.

Image source: ProfessorPeabrain

#12

Image source: Gowno_starego, Curated Lifestyle

I have a friend who is an autistic loner type who never showed any entrepreneurial traits, he just worked in a large company as a regular engineer. At work, he befriended a manager, an older guy, an old-school, obnoxious type with no education, who got everything through connections, made a lot of money, and wanted to start his own business. The guy was looking for a business partner who would complement his boldness and charisma with professional knowledge and education, and he chose my friend who had the skillset but also was young, broke and unexperienced, so he wasn’t a danger for the guy. They created a synergistic “doer and thinker” duo, like in cartoons, love-hate relationship vibe but have been making millions running their own company for several years now.

#13

Image source: Creepy_Particular319, cottonbro studio

A quiet coworker bought Bitcoin as a joke in college and cashed out years later for six figures.

#14

Image source: drewwwbabyy, _brianjr

This girl I used to date and she posted a pic. Some random guy commented on it and said something like “she’s beautiful, but if she were light-skinned, she’d look better.” She was offered to come onto the local news to talk about it and started to receive tons of modeling contracts, sponsors, etc. Idk if she’s wealthy, but her income increased drastically; it was definitely unexpected. All she does is travel now.

#15

They only had 1 dollar left so they decided to buy a scratch ticket, they won 2 dollars so they bought another one and won 5 dollars, they decided to buy another one and won 20 dollars, they decided to buy one more and won 10,000. I was just standing there in stunned disbelief watching the whole thing thinking they were an idiot for wasting their last dollar until they won.

Image source: Pm_me_clown_pics3

#16

Years ago, my dad’s cousin (and all the farmers in the area) lost their cotton crops to unseasonable rain. The other farmers took their insurance payouts and gave up on the season. My dad’s cousin, against better advice, decided to do a second planting. There was just enough growing season left, and all the conditions lined up right just right, so he got a hell of a cotton crop out of it. Being the only farmer in the area with a significant crop that year, he was able to sell at a much higher price. He leveraged his profits to buy the cotton gin the following year. And he used those profits to buy more land/farms. And he’s bought/invested in a number of other things. For a fella who started as a small time cotton farmer in the 1970s, he is living a very cushy retirement.

Image source: EngineeringQueen

#17

Guy I knew in college got hit by a truck as a child. He was pretty seriously injured but eventually made a full recovery. He never said exactly how much he was awarded from the settlement, but he said it was enough that he would never have to work a day in his life. He said he was just going to college for fun.

Image source: thelostestboy

#18

Image source: papayametallica, Good Faces

Quiet chap I worked with, unassuming and never talked much except about football and his team. I was having a coffee with him and he said he had a letter from a solicitor and was going to see them later.

Some time later he discovered that he had inherited 5000 acres and a building site development which already had 6 houses nearly complete with another 6 being built.

The estate was worth millions and continues to deliver.

He bought me a beer.

#19

Family friend has a bunch of land in Central Louisiana, passed on from her grandfather. Turns out they stumbled across oil in the back portion of the property. Since they own the mineral rights, they get mailbox money and are beyond wealthy. They live a normal life (nothing flashy) so you would never suspect anything. Very kind and generous people.

Image source: Hells-Bellz

#20

I knew a guy in Pontiac who bought a rusted-out delivery truck for $500, planning to turn it into a mobile bar. When he started gutting the floorboards, he found a hidden metal box full of original, un-cancelled bearer bonds from the 1940s. The bank fought him in court for three years, but he eventually walked away with $1.8 million. He now spends his days on a boat he named “The Paper Trail.”.

Image source: Primary_Assist_5541

#21

Image source: GregBahm, Wes Hicks

I worked at Microsoft on this project called “the hololens.” It was a fun project but after ten years, the price was still too high and the headset was still too bulky, and Microsoft wanted to concede the consumer hardware market to Apple and others, so it all got canceled.

My job was to make games for the hololens in a tiny studio within Microsoft called “LXP.” When the studio was dissolved, the lead of the studio left to create a startup and invited me to join.

“What’s the project” I asked?

“I don’t know yet” he said. “Well figure it out together.”

Seven other guys said yes to this. They had savings or wives that made money anyway. I didn’t have that. I said no.

They called the company “Against Gravity” since the hololens prototype was called “Grav A,” which I thought was funny.

A year later, I saw they were making a VR chat app that they were just giving away for free. I felt good about my decision to pass on bring the eighth member of this studio. The art looked like dev placeholder art.

A few years after that, my old PM Nick’s voice was coming through my radio on the way to work. He was the guest on NPR’s “Planet Money.” He was there to talk about how the little startup was now worth over 3 billion dollars. Apparently they had put the VR app (“Rec Room”) on mobile and it was considered a Roblox competitor.

So they did indeed figure it out together…

#22

Kid that lived down the street from me growing up tried to get me to invest in buying domain names for established businesses that hadnt got in on the internet train yet with our paper delivery money (mid 90s). I declined because I wanted to spend my money on dumb stuff. I don’t know how much he made from those but it was significant enough to sequentially create several startups in web hosting and eventually cloud storage. Each company he started he sold for more and more money. Now he is worth over $300M per google search.

Image source: Wide_Neighborhood_49

#23

My cousin co-own a factory manufacturing personal protective equipment (PPE) through a joint venture with several businessmen in China.

Our family are Asians. Not Chinese. When he told the family he has an investment opportunity to invest in China with several good friends with around 100k USD, many of us in the family thought it was a bad idea since we have very little idea how a foreigner owning a business in China is like. But we do know there are a lot of obstacles and generally a bad idea from conversations with people who own businesses in China.

The factory eventually lost so much money and the other co-owners exited the partnership leaving him as the sole owner of the business and a lot of debts. (8 figures)

Then covid happened… His factory became very profitable literally overnight. Face masks were especially profitable as they became significantly more expensive at the beginning of the pandemic due to a massive surge and his factory was producing and exporting close to a billion masks in the first year. That is not including the other PPE his factory is producing.

He had since sold the factory and is living a very comfortable lifestyle.

Image source: Angelcstay

#24

Pre online Ticketmaster: met a 16 year old who was savvy enough to be a form of Ticketmaster online. He had his own ticket selling place online. At 16 he was a multi millionaire.

Image source: RawGrit4Ever

#25

Our cleaner texted one day that she won’t be coming anymore because she hit the lottery. It was certainly unexpected but we’re super happy for her. “Only” a million but she was retired already and just cleaning to stay busy.

Image source: ihaveadogalso2

#26

I know a dude who won 60 grand in the lottery

Not crazy money by any means but still, he lucked out big time, teaches the 2nd grade so 60k is a LOT

Plus he’s an awesome dude I’m happy for him.

Image source: Vivid_Potato_6544

#27

Image source: Fun_Quit_312, Akshat Jhingran

Taught their dog to bark the Toyota theme song. She got to do the commercial where you hear the dog bark the jingle… they paid her heaps.

#28

My best friend from high school grew up poor as dirt. When his brother got married he had a hook up with a bridesmaid that he met at the wedding that turned into a long distance relationship.

Turned out he had knocked her up the night of the wedding. Her family was extremely traditional so she wanted to get married. He agreed mostly because he wanted to be near his child. She moved to where we live and they got married.

Her father owns a massive company in the northeast. After a year or so he missed his daughter enough to offer to buy them a house, pay all their moving expenses and give my friend a job with his company.

For the last twenty years my friend has had a job where he does pretty much nothing, gets paid a ton, and has no debt at all.

They have two sons now and actually have a very happy marriage.

Image source: Wildcard3369

#29

Heard from other coworkers that a former coworker laid off around a year prior had won first place in a World Series of Poker event in Las Vegas with $1,500 buy in, about 1300 participants, and $315k first place prize. Not crazy money and not a main event or anything but very impressive nonetheless.

I look him up from time to time on the WSOP website, and it looks like he goes to Vegas every few months to compete in several events, placing well enough to probably pay for his trips and take home a few $k but not quit his job. Nothing near as impressive as that first win.

Image source: FromStars

#30

I know a few people who have had one hit wonder songs and made enough $ to never work again. .

Image source: geeeking

#31

Image source: perchance2cream, Ray Suarez

One of the richest guys I know in the city I grew up in. His idea was buying Hershey bars in bulk and re-wrapping them for weddings, retirement parties, and corporate events.

That’s it. Buy the bars, print novelty labels, re-wrap them. Profit. He made tens of millions.

#32

Neighbor who used to live next to me was a neurosurgeon in the 60s who didn’t like the tools available to him in surgery, so him and his brother started a company making polarized surgical instruments, and made em themselves. Ended up selling it for 10s of millions in the 90s. Almost all of the tech they invented is still manufactured today. Had like 25 patents and his brother (who stayed a practicing surgeon while my neighbor ran the company), is considered one of the fathers of modern neurosurgery.

Image source: Miserable-Ebb-6472

#33

Family friend made 50m plus being the importer and distribution of the plastic VHS tape box that all rental places used.

Image source: surgeon_michael

#34

A guy at my church invested $30,000 in crypto and turned it into $3 million. He retired after that. (He was around 45 years old and already had money saved).

Image source: junglekf

#35

The father of a kid I grew up with invested in a little musical called Grease.

Image source: crackerblind