Five bizarre ways millionaires got rich

Most millionaires make their fortune by becoming a lawyer, doctor or an expert in an equally successful and growing career sector.

But others have found much more unconventional ways to boost their bank accounts.

Also read: Six bizarre things billionaires have done with their money

Below is a list of five of the most bizarre ways millionaires became rich.

The Pet Rock

In 1975, Gary Dahl came up with an idea for the perfect and easily maintained pet: The Pet Rock.

Although the idea began as a joke, it was soon taken seriously and before long he had created and marketed the new pets.

The fad lasted around six months, ending after a short increase in sales during the Christmas season of 1975.

At its peak he was selling 100,000 pet rocks each day for $3.95 each, and after six months walked away with around $15 million.

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Synthetic wishbone

Ken Ahroni, fed up of the fact only two people could participate in the traditional wishbone tradition, created Lucky Break Wishbone, a synthetic wishbone which always breaks in two even pieces (meaning both parties get their wish).

In just the first six months, Ahroni sold $50,000 worth of the product and 10 years later was making 30,000 wishbones a day, earning around $2.5 million.

Internet meme

I Can Has Cheezburger was created in January 2007 when Eric Nakagawa posted an image of a smiling British shorthair cat with the caption ‘I can has cheezburger?’

After posting similar images, popularity boomed and he turned it into a monetized blog.

In September the same year, he sold the website to investors for $2 million.

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Paper imports

Zhang Yin started her company – Nine Dragons Paper Holdings – with $3,800 and a plan to take advantage of China’s booming global export economy by importing unwanted scrap paper from the US and recycling it into cardboard for Chinese exporters to ship exports back to western countries.

Today she is the fourth richest person in China with a net worth of well over $4 billion.

T-shirt advertising

When Jason Sadler first started offering to wear advertisements for companies on his t-shirt, he was only charging $1 per day.

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But the idea quickly turned into a phenomenon with demand so high that he had to employ a team of t-shirt wearers in various large US cities – before long, he found himself with $4 million in his bank account.