Overnight Millionaires -
4 People Who Woke Up to be Rich
If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline - said Richard Branson, an English business magnate. While this recipe seems simple enough, you’ll agree that this is not the path we want to take towards financial fortune.
For many, getting to the first million entails arduous work, commitment, and many sacrifices, which are often our personal lives, friends and family, hobbies, a good night’s sleep, and our overall health. However, there are exceptions to this group, i.e, people who made it big literally overnight.
Let’s take a look together at some success stories that are amazing as much as they are inspiring - stories that give us hope.
Meet Oscar Stohler
Sometimes, you’re just at the right place at the right time. Oscar Stohler grew up in a sod house on a farm in North Dakota and lived there for nearly seven decades with his lovely wife Loraine. The couple diligently went about their business every day, taking care of the farm, not giving much thought to what lie below the grass their cattle were grazing.
His life completely changed when oilmen struck oil about two miles below the ground on his property. Oscar was very skeptical at first, and even made jokes about what he’ll do if he got rich. But the turn of events happened in his favor, and this modest farmer struck millions almost overnight.
Easiest money we’ve ever made - said Loraine Stohler who worked for decades as a sales clerk in a local department store. But the Stohlers remained a modest, lovely couple despite as many as three drills making money on their property. They continued driving their old pickup truck while watching the cash roll in for five wonderful years until he passed on peacefully on December 5th, 2013 at the age of 88.
Sandy Stein
Ms. Stein was a flight attendant for almost 30 years when her husband lost his job. Their son was only 10 at the time and living in LA demanded more than Sandy was making. She needed a new source of income, and pondered over it, praying for an idea. One night, she had a dream that later came to be realized in a form of a brilliant invention - The Finders Key Purse, a small invention making it a breeze to find your keys in the sea of stuff that inhabit a lady’s purse.
Sandy came up with a rough prototype and shared the idea with her flight attendant friends who all loved it. It was time to roll out the life savings and give it her best shot. And it worked, despite many telling her to give up a large investment on just one item, including her husband.
But Sandy refused to give up, made a sales team out of her flight attendant friends and their friends, and in 2005 (the first year) she made her first million. Belief in yourself and perseverance, says Sandy, made a dream come true.
Cynthia Jay-Brennan
Cynthia’s story is truly a touching one. In the year 2000, ms. Brennan sat down at the Megabuck slot machine and won $35.95 million dollars. She quit her job, had her dream wedding, and had her honeymoon in Fiji.
This kind-hearted cocktail waitress has given money and even set up trust funds for friends and family who needed help to pay off their debts. However, her happiness was short-lived as this story has a sad ending.
Only a short while after the life-changing jackpot, Cynthia’s car was hit by a drunk driver, paralyzing her from the chest down and unfortunately killing her sister. Although there was no amount of money on this Earth that could make her walk again, she found a way to put it to good use and gave again to those in need. She donated thousands of wheelchairs to all who could not afford them, as well as to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving foundation. Her luck has turned but her kind heart remained untouched.
Jonathan Duhamel
Jonathan is a high-stakes Canadian poker millionaire, an ex-factory worker, and a college dropout. Though he couldn’t focus on his college subjects, he was relentless in studying the gambling game, wanting to know everything from casino slang to complex, advanced strategies. He was 23 when he won the Worl Series of Poker main event in Las Vegas, getting 8.94 million dollars.
However, winning at poker is not easy, especially when playing against professionals who have honed their skills in strategy and practiced their perfect poker faces. There have been ups and downs, and times when he went broke. But he never gave up. He revised his gameplay, studied, and learned as much as he could to improve. When he came back - he made it big.
His friends say that the money hasn’t changed him he still enjoys the simple things in life, like he used to, and is an easy-going guy, fun to be around.
Big, life-changing wins are possible, but not common. If Lady Luck decides to look your way, you’re in for a wild ride. The important thing is to keep your head and invest wisely. Allocate your funds to last and improve your lifestyle one step at a time. Only then could you truly enjoy the win that came your way. You wouldn’t want to say easy come, easy go to all that cash, now would you?