Mind-Blowing Facts

In 1938, Lee Byung-chul started Samsung in Daegu, South Korea as a small trading company selling dried fish, vegetables, and noodles. The name Samsung means "three stars" in Korean — chosen to symbolize something big, numerous, and powerful. Today Samsung's annual revenue equals roughly 20%% of South Korea's entire GDP. From noodles to semiconductors. The stars delivered.

Matt Damon says James Cameron offered him 10% of Avatar's box office. He couldn't take it \u2014 he was locked into the Bourne franchise. Avatar grossed $2.9 billion. That 10% would have been worth roughly $250 million.

On May 22, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz paid 10,000 Bitcoin for two Papa John's pizzas — the first real-world Bitcoin purchase. At the time, those coins were worth about $41. At Bitcoin's peak, they would have been worth over $700 million.

In January 2007, Wesley Autrey was waiting for the subway in New York with his two daughters, ages 4 and 6. A man nearby had a seizure and fell onto the tracks. Autrey jumped down, pulled him into the drainage trough between the rails, and lay on top of him as the train arrived. Five cars passed over them. The train left grease on Autrey's hat — that's how close it was. Both men survived.

In 2005, a 12-year-old Ethiopian girl was kidnapped by seven men who intended to force her into marriage. When police and relatives found her a week later, three lions were standing guard around her. The kidnappers were gone. A wildlife expert said the girl's crying may have sounded like a mewing lion cub, which could explain why they protected her instead of attacking. The lions turned and walked back into the forest as the humans approached.

Violet Jessop was on the RMS Olympic when it collided with a warship. She survived. She was on the Titanic when it hit an iceberg. She survived. She was on the Britannic when it hit a mine. She survived. Three sister ships, three disasters, one woman on all of them. She kept going back to sea. Died at 83 — on dry land.

In 1992, Jim Carrey was a broke, struggling comedian. He drove to a hilltop overlooking Hollywood and wrote himself a check for $10 million. He dated it Thanksgiving 1995 and wrote "for acting services rendered" in the memo line. He kept it in his wallet for years. Just before that date, he was paid $10 million for Dumb and Dumber. When his father died, Carrey slipped the deteriorated check into his coffin.

In 1989, a man bought a painting for $4 at a flea market. He wanted the frame. When he took it apart, he found a folded document hidden behind the canvas — an original 1776 print of the Declaration of Independence, one of only 26 known to survive. It sold at Sotheby's for $2.42 million.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that New London, Connecticut, could seize Susette Kelo's home and give the land to a private developer. The city spent $78 million demolishing the neighborhood. Pfizer, the anchor company, left town. The developer couldn't get financing. 20 years later, the land is an empty lot.

Tom Cruise earned $2 million for the original Top Gun in 1986. For Top Gun: Maverick 36 years later, he negotiated backend points on a film that made $1.5 billion. His total payout exceeded $100 million. His salary for the sequel was more than six times the entire budget of the original movie.

Bruce Willis accepted $14 million for The Sixth Sense instead of his usual $20 million. In exchange, he negotiated 17% of worldwide gross. The film made $672 million. His total payout: $114 million. The biggest acting paycheck in Hollywood history came from a movie where he sits in a chair and talks to a child.

12 publishers rejected J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter manuscript. She was a single mother on welfare. They said it was too long and not suitable for children. Publisher number 13 gave the manuscript to his 8-year-old daughter. She read one chapter and demanded the rest immediately. He paid Rowling an advance of 2,500 pounds. Then told her she would never make money from children's books. The franchise is now worth $25 billion.

Dave Grohl broke his leg falling off stage during the second song of a Foo Fighters concert in Gothenburg, Sweden. He was strapped up, given pain injections, and came back to finish the remaining 2.5 hours. Three weeks later, he designed a custom throne made of guitar necks and speaker cabinets while high on morphine in a hospital bed - then toured on it for three months.

In 1994, the Friends cast each made $22,500 per episode. Warner Bros. tried to negotiate with them individually. The cast refused. They bargained as a group or not at all. Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer voluntarily took pay cuts so all six earned equally. By the final season: $1 million per episode each. They still earn $20 million a year each from reruns. The show ended 22 years ago.

Apple co-founder Ronald Wayne sold his 10% share in 1976 for $800. Today, that stake would be worth over $300 billion.

George Lucas accepted $150,000 to direct Star Wars and waived a $500,000 raise. In exchange, he kept merchandising and sequel rights. Fox thought they were worthless after losing a fortune on Doctor Dolittle merch. Star Wars merchandise has made over $20 billion. Lucas sold to Disney for $4.05 billion.

Ronald Read worked as a gas station attendant and then a janitor at JCPenney in Brattleboro, Vermont. He held his coat together with safety pins. Someone once offered to pay for his meal, assuming he could not afford it. When he died at 92 in 2014, his estate was worth nearly $8 million - all from decades of quietly buying blue-chip stocks. He left $4.8 million to the local hospital and $1.2 million to the library.

In 2004, four lifeguards were swimming off Ocean Beach, New Zealand when a pod of seven dolphins suddenly herded them into a tight group and started circling. For 40 minutes, the dolphins swam inches from their bodies, slapping the water with their tails. When one swimmer tried to break away, two dolphins pushed him back. Only then did he spot the 9-foot great white shark circling two metres below them.

Everyone thinks the McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit was a joke. Stella Liebeck was 79. The coffee was 190 degrees - hot enough to cause third-degree burns in 3 seconds. She needed skin grafts. She only asked for $20,000. McDonalds offered $800.

Elvis wanted to record "I Will Always Love You." His manager Colonel Tom Parker called Dolly Parton and said there was one condition - hand over 50% of the publishing rights. Dolly said no. Years later, Whitney Houston covered it for The Bodyguard. Dolly earned over $10 million from that single cover. She later joked she made enough money to buy Graceland.

No studio would insure Robert Downey Jr. for Iron Man — he'd just gotten out of prison. Mel Gibson personally paid his bond when nobody else would. Marvel paid him $500,000. By Avengers: Endgame, his paycheck was $75 million. Same guy. Same role. Different universe.

George Clooney made tequila in his garage as a hobby — gave bottles to friends for two years — then sold the company for $1 billion. Years earlier, he'd filled 14 suitcases with $1 million each and hand-delivered one to every friend who'd let him sleep on their couch when he couldn't pay rent. The man treats money like it's contagious.

Sisa Abu Daooh, an Egyptian woman, disguised herself as a man for 43 years after her husband passed away so she could work and provide for her daughter. She worked as a shoe shiner, brick layer, and farmer. When she was finally revealed in 2015, the Egyptian government didn't punish her — they awarded her the "Ideal Mother" prize on national television.

NBC offered Jerry Seinfeld $5 million per episode for a 10th season of Seinfeld — $110 million total. He turned it down because he wanted to "end on a high note." He then went back to performing stand-up comedy in small clubs.