8 Ridiculous Business Ideas that Actually Made People Rich

4. The Wacky Wall Walker

Like the yellow smiley, sometimes we don’t have to look far for a million dollar idea because our parents may already have one (that they’re not aware of). In this case, Ken Hakuta’s mom bought him the first known Wacky Wall Walker as a souvenir from China.

Ken became very fascinated by how the toy seemed to walk down a wall when it was thrown. He decided to buy the legal rights to own the design ($100K) and began marketing the product in Washington D. C. At first his sales gradually increased, but when an article from The Washington Post came out, the product became one of the biggest marketing fads of all time.

Estimated profit: $80M

3. A site worth a million dollars

When going into college, you probably thought of taking on a part-time job that would help your parents with the expenses (as well as give you a little extra pocket money). Alex Tew, a 21-year-old, thought otherwise and looked for other ways to earn lots of money.

One day, Tew created a home page with 1 million pixels and sold $1 per pixel for various advertisers. After almost a year, the site’s pixels were sold out, and this style of advertising was adapted by hundreds of other sites.

Estimated profit: $1M

2. Luck is scarce, so why not commercialize it?

In western traditions, the wishbone from a turkey during Thanksgiving is a symbol of luck. It involves two people breaking a wishbone, and whoever breaks the longer piece gets his or her wish fulfilled. If they were able to break the wishbone evenly, both of their wishes will be fulfilled.

However, not everyone gets to break a wishbone during Thanksgiving. In 1999, Ken Ahroni was celebrating Thanksgiving with his family when his sisters began squabbling for the lone turkey wishbone. From there, he got the idea to make plastic wishbones, because “everybody needs a lucky break.”

Estimated profit: $2.5M per year

1. Ice candy, anyone?

This last one on the list is not necessarily a ridiculous business idea, but making millions of pesos out of ice candy seems close to impossible. For Rodolfo and Rosiell De Leon, however, they accepted the challenge and it literally pushed them up the million peso ladder.

The couple started their family when they were college freshmen, and eventually left their studies to provide for their needs. In 2011, they began struggling and their daily expenses continued to pile up. Instead of spending their remaining P20 on something else, the couple bought 100 pieces of plastic bags, made ice with them and sold them for P3 each. With a profit of P300, they began making ice candies for their neighbors in the community.

Eventually, their efforts paid off and the ice candies reached several schools and groceries. They now have their own ice candy factory plus 40 ice candy refrigerators across different schools in Antipolo.
If their million peso feat using a humble P20 does not convince you, they were also apparently featured in a news article just last year.

Estimated profit: P450K per month

No matter how ridiculous, stupid or far-fetched you think your business idea is, it wouldn’t hurt to try it out. If it pays off, however, you’ll have to take even bigger risks because those risks may open more opportunities later on. It’s never easy to stick your neck out, and the people mentioned here literally went through hell before earning their first million, but they are proof that making it is possible with the right crazy idea. Who knows, it might just work.

 

What do you think? Did this give you a million dollar business idea? Sound off in the comments below!