Celebrity Ventures That Surprised Everyone

Actors, writers, singers and TV stars are all famous in their world. On many occasions, they have ventured out into businesses that were entirely different and had no connections with the talent they were acknowledged for. We would like to leave it to your discretion to judge whether these celebrities invested their money wisely by giving you some names some of whom are legendary. These celebrity ventures that surprised everyone in the past will possibly surprise you and leave you wondering whether these people had made the right decisions.

Who are the celebrities that launched ventures that surprised everyone?

[su_quote cite=”Steve Jobs” class=”cust-pagination”]”Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.”[/su_quote]

Paul Newman

Paul Newman is the legendary star who could eat 50 hard-boiled eggs in the movie Cool Hand Luke and surprised everyone with his talent. Viewers were in store for a bigger surprise in 1982 when Newman launched his not-for-profit food company.

31 years after the founding of the company and five years after Newman passed away the company has generated in excess of $370 million in charitable donations and is surprising everyone even to this day.

MC Hammer

MC Hammer had the talent to shake the world with his numbers such as U can’t touch this but his plans to announce the launch of WireDoo an Internet search engine to compete with the likes of Google and Bing was definitely surprising. WireDoo never made it off the planning stage and is still on the launching pad.

Kim Basinger

Kim Basinger had big plans for little Braselton, Georgia when she purchased the tiny town with a population of just 500 for a sum of $20 million in 1989. She wanted to turn it into a tourist attraction which never happened.

Five years down the line she was filing for bankruptcy and was forced to sell the town for the grand figure of just $1 million.

Jeremy Renner

Jeremy Renner was nominated twice for the Oscars but was a struggling actor who needed to make a living away from the camera. He turned his attention to another business in the form of real estate. The decision was indeed surprising but Renner and his partner succeeded in this business by restoring and selling more than a dozen homes for profits that surprised everyone. They were also able to sell the Beverly Hills mansion for $24.95 million and could make a cool little profit of $18 million.

Francis Ford Coppola

Four decades ago the name of Francis Ford Coppola was associated with American cinema with movies like the Godfather trilogy and a few others. He is still in the business of making movies but is likely to be found in a vineyard than on the movie sets. He had invested his paycheck from the Godfather in buying a share in the wine business where he is presently producing premium wines similar to the movies he produced.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump has his name on many things including buildings, websites, menswear, bottled water, vodka, and steaks. However, his endorsement wasn’t good enough for the United States football league that had a number of stars participating in games. The insistence of Trump to move the football season from spring to fall in order to compete with the NFL is often mentioned as the reason for the fall of the United States football leagues untimely end.

[su_quote cite=”Jeff Bezos” class=”cust-pagination”]A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. [/su_quote]

These are some of the celebrities who ventured out into businesses they knew nothing about. Some of them did well while the others possibly give up the business as a bad decision. However, they did show the world they were capable of making surprising choices that would leave everyone surprised.