Sometimes you have to persevere and realize an idea that seems unrealistic to others. You never know how well it might sell, you just hope that the credit will remain yours.. There are a lot of inventions and projects that you would expect to have made the author rich, but in fact they have made a lot of money.
History has given us quite a few eight-year-olds who gave up on their idea too quickly (read: too little).
10. Song Raven
Edgar Allen Poe is an American poet and one of the few artists whose talent did not affect his wallet. When he sold the repeatedly rejected poem Krokar to The American Review, he received only $9 for it, and it became a national success immediately after its publication, received a stream of reprints and publications, and ranked the author among the giants of world literature. His first edition of the poetry collection was sold in 2009 for over 632 thousand dollars. But what would Edgar say to this, who, apart from fame, did not experience excessive financial benefits from his talent and later died in poverty?
9. Safety clip
Walter Hunt, a mechanic and avid inventor from New York, tried to quickly develop something to pay off a $15 debt to a friend. While tossing around the iron wire, he came up with the idea for a clip that protects the fingers and the safety clip was born. In 1845, he patented the invention and sold the patent to WR Grace and Co. for $400. He must have been overjoyed to have $385 left over after paying off his debt, but how did he feel when his patent company started making millions that are still pouring in today? If only I could keep some rights!
8. Album cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
People we like. A simple idea that led British pop artist Peter Blake and his wife Jann Haworth to create a collage of portraits of historical figures next to members of The Beatles. The artwork became the cover of their eighth studio album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Peter and Jann each received £100 for their contribution. The end? For both of them, the album became the best-selling album of all time. The cover also became legendary, mainly because of the many controversies and theories about hidden messages and people who should be or should be on the cover.
7. Jelly
A popular American dessert and, judging by the series, the only dessert served in American hospitals. Recipe it was developed way back in 1895, when cough syrup makers Pearl and May Wait of New York were looking for a way to turn powdered gelatin into a tasty product. They created Jell-O, but they didn't and couldn't bring the quivering colored mass, which was supposed to be tasty (Jell-O is 88% sugar), to the market. In 1899, they sold the idea and the recipe for 450$ to a neighbor, who soon after moved to a more elite location: the ingenious businessman used the right marketing approach to stimulate the sale of jelly and soon earned the first million. By 2013, Jell-O sales had reached nearly $500 million, enough for a very, very large amount of jelly.
6. A song from a James Bond movie
Original song about James Bond from the movie Dr. But in 1962 the composer Monty Norman wrote. But because it was missing something, they also included the composer John Berry. An ensemble here, a change of pace there, the addition of jazz and rock elements and the result is a song we still hum to this day. Unfortunately, Berry, who practically made the song, got about £250 for his contribution, and Monty Norman, as the signed author, received all the rights and money that continues to flow to him today, because every time this tune plays on a mobile phone, Norman earns, and Berry, who is certainly no longer a fan of the famous spy, received his last cent from Bond 42 years ago.
5. Coca-Cola
The year 1886, the year when they developed the secret recipe for Coca Cola. Pharmacist John Pemberton certainly had no idea what a mega-corporation his nerve and brain tonic, which was initially sold for just 5 cents at his drugstore, would grow into. In search of a quick profit, he sold ownership of the recipe for $1,484, and in 1888 businessman Asa Cadler became the sole owner of Coca-Cola. With the right recipe for drink and success, less than 30 years later, he sold Coca Cola shares for $25 million, which is about $341 million today. And certainly as many and millions more tears of regret for the original inventor and generations and generations of his successors.
4. Picture Red Vineyard
The Red Vineyard, a painting Vincent van Gogh created in 1888 and the only painting he sold during his lifetime. The painter Anna Boch bought it for around 400 francs and later sold it for 10,000 francs. These earnings seem almost insignificant today, as van Gogh's paintings reach record sales figures. What price the only painting actually sold by van Gogh himself, the giant of world art, would fetch is, of course, unimaginable.
3. The Terminator movie
It was the early 1980s, when the still unknown director got by from day to day, slept in the car and on couches, and dreamed of movie spectacles. This director named James Cameron wrote the script for Terminator but never got the chance to direct it. He made an agreement with the conniving producer and future wife Gale Anne Hurd that he would be able to direct the film, but on the condition that he sell all the film rights to her for just $1. James agreed, recorded Terminator and his journey of stringing film spectacles began, which continues to this day... but that dollar for his now ex-wife definitely still stings him today!
2. The Call of the Wild story
Jack London first introduced the story Call of the Wild to the public in 1903 as a series of stories about a dog from California kidnapped and forced to work as a draft dog in the American North. At the request of the Macmillian publishing house, he adapted it into a book the same year and sold all copyrights to it for $2,000. Although 2 thousand dollars was a huge sum at the time, the publishing house immediately made many times the profit, as they sold more than 10 thousand copies of the book on the first day. Of the millions of copies sold of the story, which today is considered an American classic, Jack London did not receive a single penny, as he waived all copyright.
1. Smiley
Two dots and a curve in a yellow circle, and the result is a cute smiley. It is known and used by different generations through different media: it is on badges, t-shirts, hats, in messages, at the end of an email, on a note in the office, etc. This image is everywhere and must have made the author millions of dollars, right? No. The author of the image, Harvey Ball, drew the smiley and sold it to a client in an advertising agency for $45. But he did not copyright it. The profitable potential of the smiley was recognized by brothers Bernard and Murray Spain, who sold everyday trinkets decorated with a smiley. Smiley-mania swept America and the world, and although it died down quickly, they made more than $50 million in a short period of time, and later sold the chain of one-dollar stores for $500 million. And Harvey Ball? He used his image for better purposes and devoted his life to philanthropy and charity, founded The Smile Foundation and gave us World Smile Day!
