These businesses started down one path, but changed direction just in time to become trailblazers in their category.
1- Ben & Jerry’s
After considering pizza, shish kebab, and fondue, the pair had what they thought to be a “Eureka!” moment — Bagels.
Click HERE to find out why they switched to ice cream.
2- Taco Bell
Glen Bell started with a fast-food window that sold hamburgers and hot dogs, but only added tacos to compete against the McDonald brothers.
Keep reading to find out how tacos became the main item on Bell’s menu.
3- Hasbro
This brand is world-renowned for a bevy of cherished toys, but in the beginning, Hasbro was in the business of textile remnants.
Find out how the Hassenfeld Brothers went from peddling leftover cloth to becoming the world’s largest toy maker with the help of some pieces of plastic and a potato.
4- Raytheon
At first this small band of inventors busied themselves trying to build refrigerators.
Look at how they went from refrigerators and radios to the sophisticated weaponry, Here
5- Wrigley’s
The famed gum and candy confectioner didn’t start out as a purveyor of sweets, but a pusher of scouring soap.
Read why the gum briefly disappeared from shop shelves, before making a comeback, Here.
6- Tim Hortons
Horton’s first foray into the restaurant business was with a string of hamburger joints near Toronto, Ontario.
7- Samsung
Businessman Byung-chull Lee opened a small trading company in Taegu, Korea, with a focus on trading fish, vegetables, and fruit to Manchuria and Beijing.
Lee’s company enjoyed moderate growth before the Communist invasion in 1950 forced him to start all over. Read how Lee came back with an astounding second act.
8- Nokia
Before it became a telecom powerhouse, Nokia started, however, with paper — and a wood pulp mill on the banks of the Tammerkoski rapids in southern Finland.
Click Here to read more on the back-from-the-brink move that helped transform Nokia.
9- Toyota
Read how Toyota took a detour to make fish paste and chinaware before forever changing the car industry, Here.
10- IBM
The seeds for the creation of what would grow to become one of the most successful, influential, and admired companies of the 20th century can be found in the merger of three businesses that fell under the original umbrella called International Business Machines (IBM.N)
Read more about IBM’s early years in the calculations business, and the company’s still little-known connections to Hitler’s Germany, Here.
Click Here to find out how the doughnut chain expanded its orbit.
According to MSN.Money
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When the ball drops at the end of the year make sure you’re in one of these ten hot spots to celebrate the new year!
1. New York, USA
2. Sydney, Australia
3. London, England
4. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
5. Paris, France
6. Edinburgh, Scotland
7. Cape Town, South Africa
8. Bangkok, Thailand
9. Las Vegas, USA
10. Niagara, Canada
According to PR Log
