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“Get rich quick” schemes are, by and large, just that schemes, where the only one getting rich is the person selling the idea in the first place. After all, solid businesses can go under and the invisible hand of the market can make established companies struggle, so conventional wisdom would suggest that getting rich is a combination of hard work, perseverance and a dash of luck.

Someone asked “What’s the most ridiculously absurd way you’ve seen someone get rich in no time?” and people shared their best examples. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites, take some notes and be sure to share your own thoughts in the comments section below.

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#1

“What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) My uncle invented micro machines. Little toy cars in the early 90’s.
EDIT: when I see my uncle next I will show him this and all the people he brought joy to.

022ydagr8 , NineInchPope Report

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jonathan avatar
Jonathan
Jonathan
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1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Oh that is cool. Those little cars where awesome, I have many fond memories of them from when I was a youngling

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    #2

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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. .

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    #3

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Patient_Fruit_826 , Jess Bailey Designs Report

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    Brenda Spagnola-Wilson
    Brenda Spagnola-Wilson
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    White noise has been popular for years. There is research that shows different types of White noise helps with different types of sleeping problems (racing thoughts, to do list type thoughts, etc.)

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    #4

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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!

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    #5

    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’.

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    Sue User
    Sue User
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Worked for software company late nineties. They grew so big so fast, the couldnt calculate raises until April. So they gave us stock as backpay. Not a fortune but wont be eating ramen when i retire.

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    #6

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    sakatan , Kaboompics.com Report

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    #7

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    leelouislinden , Dopevoponop Report

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    #8

    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.

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    DrBronxx
    DrBronxx
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Sure. Most people don't necessarily want to be rich - they just want enough money not to worry.

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    #9

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) Friend of mine started selling her socks after wearing them at her retail job. She started making $7k a month just from that alone.

    Big-Routine222 , Susanne Jutzeler, suju-foto Report

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    #10

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) The person who made bank by livestreaming themselves sleeping on TikTok. Literally getting paid to nap—today’s dream job!

    moongirlLupe , MART PRODUCTION Report

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    #11

    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.

    JAM88CAM Report

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    #12

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Dynekongen , milliondollarhomepage Report

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    #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".

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    #14

    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.

    CeterumCenseo85 Report

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    DadManBlues
    DadManBlues
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    '...they went to prison for tax fraud' is an example of when so much is not enough.

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    #15

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    buffaloplaidcookbook , Jan Kopřiva Report

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    #16

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) Do y’all remember silly bandz? My friend’s dad came up with rainbow silly bandz and became a millionaire from that.

    Glittering-Gold3141 , EnigmaticDaze Report

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    #17

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Arbiter_89 , boburnham Report

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    #18

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Sharp-Engineer-4090 , energepic.com Report

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    seansean avatar
    Sean Sean
    Sean Sean
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I wish I understood finance better, I'd give this a try.

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    #19

    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.

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    Billycat
    Billycat
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    When I was little, me and my brother found a load of 10 and £20 notes shoved in a hedge and on the pavement in our tiny village as we were walking home from the park one day. Mum sent us back to look if there were any more deeper in the hedge and there was!

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    #20

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

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    Laughing otter
    Laughing otter
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    My oldest niece was employee #6 at Oracle. She cashed out her stocks at age 30, and hasn’t had to work since.

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    #21

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Itchy_General_1290 , Ron Lach Report

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    #22

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Herr_Poopypants , Art Wall - Kittenprint Report

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    goes-bart84 avatar
    Bart
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    One of the reasons I'm happy to live in Switzerland is that logic and personal responsibility is still applied here. If you need a sign not to climb a electric transmission tower than maybe Darwin is talking to you from the grave... We once had a tourist trying to sue a local ski rent shop because he fell (while skiing) and broke his leg. The judge dismissed the case in under 30sec...

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    #23

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    Kent_Knifen , Leon Bublitz Report

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    daveaepstein avatar
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    D
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Does anyone know what any of this means without googling?!

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    #24

    A day time TV show many years ago about flipping repossessed houses bought at auction where they showed three folks/couples buying a house, fixing it up and selling it. One chap bought two houses but did nothing to them, didn't even clean them. All he did was sell them at market value and made a bunch since the auction price was peanuts. The show edited it as if he was new to the flipping house game so maybe he'd have a better go the next episode even though his profit was more than the other folks. The next two episode he did the same thing with another seven houses before the production team realised that he had no intention of doing anything to any house and was only there to use the production crew's contacts and for them to do a lot of the legwork as required for the show. He made over £100k+ on nine houses with doing barely anything. The show stopping dealing with him after that.

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    #25

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) My ex back in high school (2015-2016) invested in bitcoin. he made really good profit then promptly spent it on the largest amount of d***s i’ve ever seen in my life. i mean stacks upon stacks of it. he rarely sold and just ran through it all with him and his two friends in like a month.

    there’s reasons we aren’t together anymore….

    skyfully , CardMapr.nl Report

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    #26

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    NOT000 , Luis Quintero Report

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    #27

    “What’s The Most Ridiculously Absurd Way You’ve Seen Someone Get Rich In No Time?” (30 Answers) 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.

    MirthandMystery , Waldemar Report

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    DrBronxx
    DrBronxx
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If I win the lottery, I won't tell anyone, but there will be signs. Like the DeLorean in my driveway.

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    #28

    A friend of a friend was at the rubbish dump with a friend and found a bag filled with a bunch of cash. They split it and he hid it under his bed then used it to pay tradies and stuff. Very dodgy but sounds like something from a book.

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    ZuriLovesYou
    ZuriLovesYou
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    How come I don't just find bags of money lying around?! 😭

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    #29

    A house in a low-income neighbourhood caught fire. This copywriting whiz that was also a community leader started a campaign to raise funds for the family, purely on Whatsapp. He raised 200K over 2 days and handed all the money to them within the 3rd day.

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    Captain Grump
    Captain Grump
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    1 month ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This will be an unpopular take, but it cheeses me off when people don't pay for house or renters insurance, then get treated as helpless charity cases. I could have done a lot with the $35,000 or so I've paid over the last 35 years for insurance. Zero sympathy - and zero dollars donated - for folks who don't take basic precautions to look after themselves.

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    #30

    I germany during covid basically everyone was allowed to start a covid test station and anyone could go there and get tested and even had to get tested to go to work. But what a lot of people did they just collected hundreds of names family friends and distant relatives and booked them daily as tested. And the german goverment paid them around 15 € per test. People in bigger citys made millions without even testing anyone.

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