10 People Who Became Rich Because of their Ideas

1. Walt Disney (Disney)

-

Disney began his career by being fired by a newspaper

creative enough. Later, his Mickey Mouse cartoons were
they were deemed to be too scary for women. If that
"The Three Little Pigs" was also turned down because it
characters.
Before he died in 1966, he was able to keep $80 million as

for not being

rejected because
wasnt enough,
only had four
his net worth.

2. Milton Hershey (Hershey)

-

The man who blessed us with the sweet milk-chocolate treat

wasnt a hit the first time around. Before launching his
business, he had worked for a local candy factory. But when
out on his own, he failed miserably.
Despite two more failures, he returned to the family farm
art of making delicious milk-chocolate candy, which we enjoy
Hershey chocolate today and has a net worth of $683,423,000.

we all love
own candy
he decided to go
and perfected the
in the form of

3. Michele Ferrero (Ferrero/Nutella)

-

Though Ferrero has many brands, including Ferrero Rocher,

Kinder chocolate, among the most notable, and iconic, of his
Nutella brand. Ferrero recognized a niche for spreadable
addition of hazelnut proved to a perfect mix. The magic of
never been more clearly defined than in the net worth of

Tic Tac, and

inventions is the
chocolate and the
chocolate has
over $20 billion.

4. Brad Hughes (Public Storage)

-

He found himself on a road trip, and stopped at a warehouse

was full. This is when he had his light-bulb idea for Public
storage unit easily accessible from the highway, or anywhere
Public Storage is now Americas largest self-storage company
net worth of $1.95 Billion.

to find that it
Storage: A
for that matter.
earning him a

5. George de Mestral (Velcro)

-

He noticed how burrs from plants would stick to his pants.

them under a microscope he noticed how each burr had tiny
fastened to the small hoops of his trouser fabric. Realizing
create the same effect with artificial materials, he set
Velcro, an invention that is sold all over the world and
revenue of around $100 million every year.

When examining
hooks that
that he could
about creating
brings in

6. Harry Coover (Super Glue)

-

Harry Coover and his research team at Eastman Kodak set out
plastic gun sights using the highly adhesive chemical
They failed and instead were stuck with Super Glue. The idea
1958 superglue was sold as a commercial product, while under
direction the R&D team at Kodak helped introduce 320 new
resulting in a $1.8 billion to $2.5 billion sales growth.

to make clear
cyanoacrylate.
took hold and by
Dr Coovers
products,

7. Arthur Fry (Sticky Note)

-

Frys eureka moment came when the scrap paper he had used
hymnbook continuously fell out causing him to lose his
experimenting and with his new product sent messages to his
he discovered that its best application was as a note.

to bookmark his
page. He began
boss. It was then

8. Robert Chesebrough (Vaseline)

-

He was down an oil well when he discovered a gooey

substance known by
workers as rod wax. Chesebrough noticed how the workers
would use the goo
to heal cuts and burns. The entrepreneurial-minded chemist took a sample home for

experimentation. Soon he managed to extract a usable

and in 1872 he patented the process before setting up

petroleum jelly
business.

9. Percy Spencer (Microwave)

-

Percy Spencer was experimenting with a device used to detect

during WW2 when the microwaves transmitted from the radar
in his pocket. He began testing with popcorn and eggs and
colleague to witness his findings. As he marveled at this
splattered over his face. Spencer began a secret project
Speedy Weenie, meaning quick hot dog. By the late 1940s,
patent for the use of microwaves to cook food.

10.
-

enemy planes
melted a candy bar
invited a
spectacle, the egg
codenamed The
Raytheon secured a

Larry Page (Google)

As a research project at Stanford University, Page and Brin

created a search engine that listed results according to
the pages, after concluding that the most popular result
most useful. They called the search engine "Google" after
term "googol," which refers to the No. 1 followed by 100
their mission to organize the immense amount of information
web.

(co-founder)
the popularity of
would often be the
the mathematical
zeros, to reflect
available on the