25 Ridiculous Ways In Which Someone Normal Got Rich Quickly

Everyone dreams of getting rich quickly, but isn’t it just that – a dream? Some would say you have to work hard to make money, but according not according to these Reddit submissions. Some people seem to have made their money through the most ridiculous of means in absolutely no time, and folks are still dumbfounded over it. But hey, if it worked for someone else, it might just work for you too, so go ahead and read the crazy stories below for some inspiration.

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

Image source: 022ydagr8, NineInchPope

EDIT: when I see my uncle next I will show him this and all the people he brought joy to.

#2 Go to work for a little startup called Dell straight after college in Austin, Texas in the 80s. Get a bunch of meaningless ‘future shares’ as a sort of ‘welcome to this startup’ sweetener. Work there for a while, company goes public, meaningless shares were suddenly worth a fortune. Epitome of ‘right place at the right time’.

Image source: DWwithaFlameThrower

#3 The guy that made the Million Dollar Website. Selling 1 pixel advertisements for 1$ must be some of the most absurdly genius ways of making loads of money.

Image source: Dynekongen, milliondollarhomepage

#4 Do y’all remember silly bandz? My friend’s dad came up with rainbow silly bandz and became a millionaire from that.

Image source: Glittering-Gold3141, EnigmaticDaze

#5 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.

Image source: Kent_Knifen, Leon Bublitz

#6 Kim Kardashian f****d a low rent rapper and got her mom to sell the tape. As far as ridiculous and absurd goes this is about as good as it gets. .

Image source: kimkardashian

#7 My uncle’s company made wood shaving tools. One day martha stewart used one to grate cheese on her tv show. Thus the Microplane was born.

Image source: leelouislinden, Dopevoponop

#8 Ok so university lecturer at my uni, he was a deep sea biologist. He was given a sea slug which had been collected on an automated underwater vehicle dive.

In the mucus of this sea slug, he isolated a bacteria which produced a protein digesting enzyme which worked at low temperatures. He sold this biological enzyme to one of the big company’s 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, to retiring in about a week.

Image source: JAM88CAM

#9 A good friend of mine started trading stocks after retirement. He trades ETFs everyday in his underwear. He does it all on his phone or ipad. He retired 3 yrs ago. So far this year he’s made $1.3 million. It is ridiculous.

Image source: Sharp-Engineer-4090, energepic.com

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

Image source: arouseandbrowse

#11 My cousin recorded the audio of a fan for 8 hours about a decade ago and now has north of a billion “white noise” YouTube views and is one of the top podcasts on Spotify.

Image source: Patient_Fruit_826, Jess Bailey Designs

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

Image source: Big-Routine222, Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto

#13 Friend of an friend sold d***s in the early 2010s. Some sales were done in bitcoin. Went to jail for five years and came out with a what was now a few million in Bitcoin that he didn’t touch during it’s biggest booms. I suppose it took a decade but what had seemed like a huge f**k up left him an accidental millionaire and meant he didn’t need to return to a life of crime when he got out. Went on to live a frugal lifestyle as a humble “crypto trader”.

Image source: delph906

#14 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.

Image source: Arbiter_89, boburnham

#15 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.

Image source: Herr_Poopypants, Art Wall – Kittenprint

#16 A friend of mine once struck it rich overnight by selling “designer” pet rocks online, complete with little outfits and backstories. It was a wild idea that somehow took off!

Image source: mustafizn73

#17 I once knew a guy who bought a lottery ticket on a whim while waiting in line for coffee. He won, quit his job, and spent the next year traveling the world on a “find myself” tour. He came back with a massive tattoo of a pineapple on his chest and a story that made him richer in life than most millionaires. Turns out, the real jackpot was the freedom to be absurd.

Image source: Classic_Ad_7950

#18 My brother’s friend worked minimum wage jobs. Then he and his wife started buying lube in large quantities from overseas and repackaging it in much smaller quantities in their garage and reselling it on Amazon. Really just classic middleman stuff, but they made SO MUCH money that they quit their day jobs almost immediately and haven’t looked back.

Image source: buffaloplaidcookbook, Jan Kopřiva

#19 I once watched a guy turn his viral TikTok dance challenge into a million-dollar merchandise line overnight. He just tossed on a silly costume, danced like nobody was watching, and somehow convinced everyone that wearing a chicken suit while moonwalking was the new black. Now I’m left wondering if I should start practicing my own absurd dance moves or just invest in rubber chickens.

Image source: Itchy_General_1290, Ron Lach

#20 Big lotto winners who aren’t satisfied and keep buying more lotto tickets and win *again*. I don’t mean a mil or 2.. but those megaball types who hit 10 or more, then play and win million+ like a year later.

Image source: MirthandMystery, Waldemar

#21 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.

Image source: sakatan, Kaboompics.com

#22 The person who made bank by livestreaming themselves sleeping on TikTok. Literally getting paid to nap—today’s dream job!

Image source: moongirlLupe, MART PRODUCTION

#23 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.

Image source: CeterumCenseo85

#24 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.

Image source: batmanineurope

#25 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.

Image source: NOT000, Luis Quintero