If your needs are modest and you're not looking to support employees and a true business with overhead, then maybe yes you can find a niche and quietly do alright with it, but this will undoubtedly have a scale barrier, a ceiling.
After typing about a dozen examples of niche gone mainstream......I deleted it all and came to the conclusion that - niche gone mainstream is the norm, not the exception.
Some niches are just so universal that they explode and take over as the "success story".
I suppose the bigger point he was making in that regard is that he is business savvy.
Exactly - most successful people I know in most businesses "made it" because they had good business sense - not because they were superior mechanics.
Jeeze look at poor Tommy McDonald. The guy does (or did) some really excellent work on his show - - but - as a personality,,,,,,he wasn't Norm... (not saying Norm wasn't or still is great, by any stretch - he was and is!).
You can be the absolute best - whatever.. but, if you don't show up on time for an appointment, don't return calls, show up to a job late - without the materials to do the work - leave early, do your own thing and not what the customer wants - then no matter how good you are - you're in trouble as far as surviving goes. & while I'm at it - if you think in terms of "by the hour" as far as income goes, you're missing the point & you're probably never going to be happy.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." - John Lennon