Who became one of the richest men in Hungary thanks to a toy he developed?

Who became one of the richest men in Hungary thanks to a toy he developed?

Introduction

There are some jobs out there that are almost guaranteed to help you hit the financial lottery.

Coding, medicine, and even spots. But there are also other, more obscure jobs that can help you reach the same goal.

For example, did you know that a professional bed warmer can make up to $200k a year?

Or that the guy who created the cat “I can has a cheezeburger” meme sold it enough times to earn him around $10 million?

And that’s just two of the weirdest ones.

Another guy who managed to find a weird but surprisingly way to make him rich?

A Hungarian man who developed a special toy, and which in turn made him the richest man in his country. Keep reading to find out more.

Who became one of the richest men in Hungary thanks to a toy he developed?

So, who became one of the richest men in Hungary thanks to a toy he developed? While the name of the man we’re going to be talking about will probably give the toy away, we’d still like to introduce you to Erno Rubik.

Originally an architecture professor in Hungary, he came up with the idea of a 3D puzzle in 1974.

During his time as a professor, he was making roughly $200 a month at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts, but after the success of his invention, an additional $30k in monthly royalties was added to his income.

Today that would be around $73k a month based on inflation.

This is because he licensed his invention out to an American toy manufacturing company that did an excellent job at advertising it worldwide.

After developing the Rubik’s cube, Erno went on to develop another four toys under his name, although none of them ever ended up having the success his cube did.

The legacy of the Rubik’s cube

Initially called the Magic Cube, each side of the Rubik’s cube showcases nine squares in different colors, and it can be rearranged in forty-three quintillion different combinations.

The last time we checked the states, over 350 million units of the Rubik’s cube had been sold worldwide.

This officially makes it the best-selling toy of all time. So popular was it that statistics show that one in every seven people worldwide has come in direct contact with a unit.

While the peak of the craze was in the midst of the 80s, it’s still a widely loved toy to this day.

The secret of the Rubik’s cube interest is that it appeals to a wide range of people.

From high school kids wanting to show off to their friends to highly educated scholars who use the cube as a way to learn about algorithms and algebra.

The Rubik’s cube has also won quite a few prizes and titles, including being one of the 100 most powerful developments of the 20th century.

It also won the German Game of The Year Special Award in 1980 and has received honorable mentions for the best toy in the United States and the United Kingdom.

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4 Other weird jobs that made people rich

Erno Rubik isn’t the only person who hit it big in unexpected ways. Here are five other weird jobs or inventions that made people rich.

The guy who domain squatted

In 2008 a guy named Chris Clark bought the pizza.com URL for $20 in 1994.

He sold it for $2.6 million.

That’s a pretty smart way to create passive income if we’re ever seen one.

The guy who sold a baseball for millions

Philip Ozersky was at Busch Stadium on September 27th in, 1998, watching the St Louis Cardinals game.

Baseball player Mark McGwire had just hit his 70th home run of that season when the ball he had touched flew into the bleachers.

Ozersky caught it and then made millions of dollars off of it when he sold it for $3.5 million three months after that.

The guy who collected cans

Ok, so maybe the title of this one might be a little misleading.

While he did make a significant amount of money collecting and selling cans, he actually made his fortune by investing that money into the stock market.

Curt Degerman’s family discovered a $1.36 million fortune under his name after he died.

The woman who invented goggles for dogs

Have you ever been hanging out with your pup outside, watched them squint their eyes when the sun hit them, and thought: someone should invent sunglasses for dogs? So did Roni Di Lullo. Well – kind of. She was playing frisbee with her dog one sunny afternoon when her dog missed a catch.

It wasn’t something very common, and Roni figured out it was the sun that had hit her in the face. So, she designed the first-ever pair of Doggles.

Today, she makes more than $3 million annually from sales alone. 

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