I love hearing goofy ways people made it big ($ that is... )....

like Chris S's old neighbor who now has $3M+ in cars, but 10 years ago was making similar $ to Chris.

I always thought it was neat how people registered webnames (like www.drugs.com) then sold them for crazy prices..... any one of us could have done that..... but....

anyone have any great stories to tell? (inheritance is not a great story... neither is running daddy's business)...or have a friend / family member who has done something awesome?

My dad has a cabin and his neighbor is the guy who invented "THE CLUB" for cars. That one invention turned him into a zillionaire. His Cabin is a Monsterous house right on the Clarion river with a "guest quarters" bigger than my dads cabin....apparently he has several places like this.....

 

My friend Bill M. from high school started working for MTv in it's early days and then went to work for Yahoo before they went public. He retired before he turned 30, lives in a Multi-Million dollar home in San Francisco but still teaches computer classes to keep busy.

 

My friend didn't have a pot to piss in 15 years ago. All he had was an option to buy a 600 acre abandoned silica sand mile in the LA area. He acquired the property, scraped up a loan, built a wastewater treatment plant, and gave it to the nearby city in exchange for getting the property annexed to the city. That got him the ability to acquire entitlements, including roads, utilities, etc. He has since built several hundred high end homes, a shopping center, and a business park. He has also acquired sever hundred more surrounding acres. He is planning a hotel, a theme park, and God knows what else. He's been my best client for environmental services, including remediating contaminated soil multiple times, for all that time. And here's the kicker: He's the nicest, most down to earth guy you'd ever want to meet.

 

I thought you were H2 nigga?


It makes you a little jealous hearing stories like this but luckily I really don't know too many people with great stories.

1 couple bought a "NurseFinders" franchise for $200k (unfort, $100k was borrowed from her parents... lame part of the story) but they then turned it around and were netting $4M a year about 5 years ago.... I am sure they are closer to $10M a year now. They were dicks though, but neat the way they turned the company around.

 

Through someone I know a guy who had one of those invention contests in grade school where kids come up with ideas. He came up with some kind of skate guards for hockey skates that was bought by one of the skate companies for $1 million when he was either in grade school or junior high.

After high school he did nothing and lives off the money (but not extravagantly) does drugs and hangs out all night in a pool hall.

Other than that, a guy I went to high school with had his father (who started 3 small banks) die and leave him roughly $100 mill. Coincidently, he just parties, does some chemicals and lives the millionaire playboy routine.

Another guy got into real estate development and buying apartment complexes. He is worth about $80 mill now I am told and just buys toys, homes and farts around. He just sold his helicopter but bought an island on a popular lake here and a giant hovercraft to go to and from.
Not because it is the easiest way but the way that most people will notice him. He was coincidently kicked out of a prestigious golf club for landing his helicopter in the parking lot. He likes people to know he has a pantload of money.

 

is this guy roughly our age? that would be pretty awesome.... hell I will feel like a King if I get to $5M at some point in my life. (I am a long long way off).

I hate dicks like that guy landing a helicopter anywhere!

similarly a local duechbag parks his Porsche on sidewalks and makes people walk around it.

 

I am now that I blew my H1 engine, gotta go back and change it now.

 

I don't remember the exact details, but a family friend either invented or helped invent and market that flashlight that charges by shaking it. He got some huge distribution rights in China and North America, as well a deal with Hummer. Last time I saw him he came by the house in a Benz that I haven't even heard of, but apparently he had it imported from Europe and it costs a buttload. He then promptly gave me and my family a box full of these flashlights that helped make him rich.

 

I used to go to school with the sisters who would later form "The Dixie Chicks." Playing the banjo in Second Grade is a good way to get your ass kicked. But now, they're laughing all the way to the bank.