Business Adviser Magazine September 2013 | Page 14

weird inventions that made someone money
Alarm clock that uses voices.
Here’s one of those easy inventions, and it isn’t even that weird. Use one of the “sampler” chips that are found in electronic keyboards. Push the button to record a short message-alarm. Wake up to your own voice, or record a wake-up message from a sexy friend for more motivation. Have it say what you want. “You’re late for work!” might work, or might just give you a heart attack.

IN FACT

millions selling rocks
Gary Dahl, a California advertising man came up with the idea of a pet rock in 1975 after a conversation with friends about cats, dogs, and birds being too much trouble and costing too much money. He said a pet rock was an ideal pet - easy and cheap. Dahl spent the next two weeks writing the Pet Rock Training Manual , a step-by-step guide about taking care of it and how to train it. He went to a builder’s supply store and found a Rosarita Beach Stone that sold for a penny. He packed the stone in a box shaped like a pet carrying case along with the book.

someone Made

Furniture that glows in the dark.
Perhaps it would be more practical to have just the edges trimmed with a glow-in-the-dark material. No more bumping into the coffee table in the dark, and a nice party atmosphere too.

Pet Rock Millionaire
The Pet Rock was introduced at a gift show, where the store, Neiman-Marcus ordered five hundred. After a news release showing Gary surrounded by boxes of his Pet Rocks, Newsweek did a story and within a few months was shipping ten thousand Pet Rocks every day. He even appeared on The Tonight Show twice. By Christmas that year two and a half tons of rocks had been sold, three-fourths off all the newspapers in America had run Pet Rock stories. A million rocks sold for $3.95 apiece in just a few months making Gary Dahl an instant millionaire. The story of the Pet Rock is a never-ending source of inspiration to create new crazes that sweep the nation and make millions for the genius who thought of them.

Wind chimes made from bones.
There are a lot of people out there who like the morbid side of life, and I’ll bet they buy wind chimes too. Of course, they don’t have to be human bones!

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BUSINESS ADVISER