5 dizzying success stories when ordinary housewives became the owners of millions

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

It seems that only representatives of show business, successful writers and other creative people can receive royalties in the millions of dollars. But today we want to talk about those women who, without support and without any superpowers, managed to become millionaires. For the most part, they were not preoccupied with plans to conquer the world, but at the same time they became rich and became famous due to their purely everyday purposefulness.

Tatiana Bakalchuk

Once Tatiana Bakalchuk passionately dreamed, sitting on maternity leave with her little daughter and moonlighting as tutoring, to raise the financial level of her family at least a little. It was then that the idea came to her to organize trade via the Internet, especially since in the early 2000s there was nothing like this in Russia. At first, Tatyana's apartment played the role of a warehouse, and she went to pick up the parcels on her own. In 2005, she and her husband opened Wildberries, one of the most popular online stores in Russia today.

Bette Nesmith Graham

This woman was married to Warren Nesmith. He participated in World War II and, upon returning from the front, decided to divorce his wife. After the death of his father, Bette had to move with his mother, sister and son to Dallas, as there remained after him real estate. The former housewife mastered typing and shorthand and was able to get a job as a secretary at Texas Bank & Trust. Correcting mistakes in typescript was incredibly difficult, and one day Bette, who was engaged in painting windows, came up with the idea to paint over her own typos.

At first, she used watercolor tempera for this purpose, then she began to experiment with different additives to paint, turned to her son's school teacher who taught chemistry for help. At first, Bette used her invention herself, later colleagues began to contact her, and as a result, she realized that the coloring liquid she created could bring a good income. In 1956, the Mistake Out corrector appeared on the market, later renamed to Liquid Paper and registered as a trademark, a factory was founded and the invention was patented. In 1979, the entrepreneur sold Liquid Paper for $ 47.5 million.

Joy Mangano

On account of Joy Mangano today 71 inventions, among which there is a fluorescent collar for pets, invented as a teenager, when the girl worked part-time in a veterinary clinic. Later, this amazing woman, who graduated from Pace University, was forced to work in a variety of positions, including a waitress and a ticket manager, in order to feed her three children, from whose father she was divorced. Joy's most important invention was the miracle mop, which brought her fame and a very solid reward.

She invented it almost by accident. While removing the glass shards, Joy cut herself badly and thought that it would be nice to have a mop that does not need to be touched by hands during use. The result is the Miracle Mop, a plastic construction with a cotton tail and a wringer. At first, sales did not go, and Mangano decided to tell housewives about her miracle invention herself. Under a contract with the TV shop QVC, Joy began to advertise her mop, and as a result, after a couple of years, she made a millionth profit from Miracle Mop sales. And after that, other Joy inventions began to appear on the market: non-slip hangers, a line of fragrances, and much more.

Sara Blakely

Today the Spanx company for the production of shapewear is known all over the world. And she was started by Sarah Blakely, who wished to look perfect in snow-white trousers. This desire led the girl, who had once failed in the exams for the law faculty of the university, to study the peculiarities of making shaping underwear. Sarah Blakely's journey has actually been a tricky one, with vendors shrugging off her bids and using a credit card to acquire the trademark, which she used to pay $ 150 to the USPTO website.

The breakthrough came in 2000 when Oprah Winfrey named Spanx products as her favorites on the air. The company's sales immediately soared at least threefold. When Sarah Blakely started her journey, she had only 5 thousand dollars in her pocket, but she was ready to fight until she reached her goal. And she did not allow herself to give up, even when, it seemed, the whole world turned away from her. Today, many Hollywood celebrities wear Spanx clothes.

Kim Levin

This woman was calmly engaged in household chores, being in complete confidence: the spouse must provide for the family, and the task of the wife and mother is to raise children and maintain order in the house. One day, Kim saw her husband on the street taking out a grain of corn from a canvas bag and feeding it to the animals. It was then that she decided to create a small pillow inside which you could put aromatic herbs and these very corn kernels that can help you relax. The first copy Kim Levin made for herself, then began to give them to friends and acquaintances. And today, spa pads are used in almost all massage rooms and spas.

For centuries, it was believed that a woman's destiny is a home, children and a kitchen. But in history there were women who managed to break out of this stereotype and, thanks to their abilities and amazing ability to work, to give the world discoveries and inventions, who turned the scientific world upside down.