He builds empires. He rides motorcycles. Now he grants wishes. Is there anything Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons can't do?

Bob Parsons hasn't always been so smart. There was a time when he thought he wouldn't make it to 6th grade. But that's ancient history. These days, the motorcycle-riding entrepreneur turns just about everything he touches to gold.

It was his idea in 2005 to spend what seemed like an unbelievable amount of money to place the domain registrar's first-ever Super Bowl® commercial. The ad, which featured WWE Diva and original Go Daddy Girl Candice Michelle in a spoof of Janet Jackson's 2004 "wardrobe malfunction," was pulled by the network after one airing because the content was "inappropriate." Site hits to GoDaddy.com went through the roof.

"The day before we ran our first ad in 2005, our market share of new-domain registrations was 16%," Parsons was quoted as saying in a 2009 article in Advertising Age. "The following week, it increased to 25%."

Since then it's been one success after another. Go Daddy viewers now look forward to the next commercial knowing it will be fun, edgy and at least a little inappropriate. The company's market share for new-domain registrations is currently at 46% worldwide.

According to the Ad Age interview, an outside firm's analysis put the public relations value of the network's rejection of Go Daddy's 2008 Super Bowl commercial at $11.7 million.

While Bob has been making cameo appearances in his own commercials for some time, he has largely avoided the spotlight. Until now. In 2009's "Genie," the Go Daddy executive casts himself in the role of a Genie who is summoned – satin pants and all – by LPGA pro and Go Daddy Girl Anna Rawson.

In typical Go Daddy style, viewers of the TV version – set to air during the PGA tournament – only get to see part of the story. To see the rest, they have to go to GoDaddy.com.

Parsons, whose company began registering domains as a means of selling his site-builder, had no idea he'd be able to make money as a registrar. Bob discounted the price, offering domains for the unheard-of price of $8.95 – one-quarter what other registrars were charging at the time.

In the end, what he expected to be a loss leader turned out to be his pot of gold. "You can make big money getting paid nickels—" he muses in the April 2009 edition of Playboy magazine, "as long as you have enough people giving them to you."

Not bad for a guy who grew up in a working-class Baltimore neighborhood.