There are a lot of rags to riches stories out there.
Whether it be some great idea started in a garage or a lucky lottery ticket, we all love a story of an underdog hitting it big. But some stories aren't quite so conventional.
In fact, one man became the richest in the world in very unconventional circumstances - not that it lasted all that long.
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Chris Reynolds checked his bank account and found that £70 quadrillion had been deposited there. I would ask you to imagine yourself in this scenario, but I wouldn't want to give you a heart attack.
This bewildering situation happened back in July 2013 when Reynolds opened up PayPal. To give you an idea of how huge this number is, it has 17 figures.
With this gigantic figure sitting in his account, he was now the richest person in the world. This put him ahead of Mexican business magnate Carlos Slim who has a net worth of $67 billion.
Before this point, he'd never received more than $1,000 on PayPal, which came after he sold a set of vintage BMW tires on eBay.
Speaking about his surprise wealth to the Philadelphia Daily News, Reynolds said: "At first I thought that I owed quadrillions. It was quite a big surprise."
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We all have big plans about what we'd do if we hit the big bucks. Buying a house usually tops the list, but we all say we'd like to donate to charity, to make ourselves feel better.
What was topping Reynolds' list of priorities?
He wanted to help bring the national debt down and buy the Phillies - the Philadelphia baseball team.
However, PayPal quickly clocked that a mistake had been made and apologised for the 'inconvenience'.
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I think PayPal has a different definition of 'inconvenience' to the rest of us.
In a statement, PayPal said: "This is obviously an error and we appreciate that Mr. Reynolds understood this was the case."
The money had to be withdrawn from the account, but the company offered to donate an undisclosed amount.
"We think it's inspiring that he decided to use this occurrence to donate to a cause he believes in", the company said. "And we hope to honor this spirit by donating to a cause of his choice – we've reached out to him to make this offer and to let him know we are grateful that he's a customer!"
Ben Thompson