The Ugly Truth About Starting an Online Business

Nobody tells you upfront that failure is the actual strategy. Not the thing that happens before success, the actual strategy itself. Alston Godbolt has 138,000 YouTube subscribers and posts videos that sometimes stop at 2,000 views. He calls those failures too, and he keeps going. That gap between what people expect from online business and what it actually looks like is exactly what this video tears apart.

In this conversation, Alston covers two specific niche ideas you can act on today, explains why your path to success runs directly through failure, and draws a clear line between the hurdles that slow you down and the roadblocks that require a full direction change. If you have been sitting on an idea and waiting until you feel ready, this is the video that closes that waiting period.

What You’ll Walk Out With

Two profitable niche ideas you can start building around today, including one worth billions of dollars
Why failing at content creation is not a sign you should stop
The sports analogy that reframes every failed post, video, and product launch
The real difference between a hurdle and a roadblock, and why most people confuse the two
How to validate niche demand before building a single product
Why going where other creators refuse to go is your actual competitive advantage
How to match a niche to your real skills and background at finder.platformproof.com

Niche Idea One: Death and Dying

Death and dying is a multi-billion dollar business. Every single day, someone is going through what Alston recently went through when he lost a family member and realized he had no idea what the process actually required. What documents do you file? Who do you call first? What do you do with an estate when there is no will? How do you handle creditors? When do you deal with the county versus the state?

Most people do not know. They are overwhelmed, emotional, and searching for someone to walk them through it step by step. That is a content opportunity, and it is one that almost nobody is taking seriously because the topic feels too morbid to talk about publicly.

Here is how you would monetize it. Affiliate programs exist for funeral homes. You can create digital products, like a checklist or a mini-course, that walks someone through exactly what needs to happen in the first 30 days after a death. You can build content that covers how to handle an estate, what to do without a will, how to file with the county and the state, and how to communicate with creditors during the process. The need is constant. The emotional weight of the situation makes people willing to pay for clarity and direction.

The reason this works is that it is a high-emotion space with real money attached. People in this situation are not searching for entertainment. They are searching for help. If you show up with honest, practical, step-by-step content, you become the trusted resource in a space where very few creators are willing to show up at all. Low competition, high need, proven monetization paths.

Niche Idea Two: Microsoft Excel

Millions of people around the world use Microsoft Excel every single day, and most of them are using it poorly. They are doing manually what a formula could handle in seconds. They have never built a macro. They are copying and pasting data that a lookup function would automate in moments. Most of them know they are doing it wrong and want to fix it.

Alston has returned to this niche repeatedly because the demand is massive and the barrier to entry is low for someone who already uses Excel well. You do not need to be a developer or a data scientist. You need to know more than the person searching.

The mistake people make is thinking they cannot enter this niche because a hundred courses already exist on Udemy. Go look at Udemy right now and check enrollment numbers on Microsoft Excel courses. The numbers are real and they are large. What those existing courses cannot give you is your specific angle, your sub-niche, and your platform strategy.

Maybe you build content around Microsoft Excel for small business owners. Maybe your focus is Excel for architects, or Excel for busy parents managing household budgets. Maybe you create tutorials showing people how to incorporate AI tools directly into their Excel workflow. These sub-niches exist and they have buyers. Alston himself was creating Excel mini-tutorials on TikTok last year and they were getting views and traction. He also noted that almost nobody is creating Excel content on LinkedIn, where professionals are actively trying to build skills to qualify for better jobs. That is a wide-open opportunity sitting in plain sight.

The broader principle applies to any niche. You do not have to invent something new. You take what already works, apply your own knowledge and experience to it, and then go one platform further than most people are willing to go. That last part is where most of the real opportunity lives.

You Are Going to Fail. That Is the Actual Strategy.

This is the part of starting an online business that nobody fully prepares you for, not because it is a secret, but because it is uncomfortable to say directly.

You are going to fail.

Not maybe. Not if you make one bad decision. You are going to fail as a normal, expected, and required part of the process. The creators who succeed are not the ones who avoided failure. They are the ones who kept moving after it.

Alston had a comment on one of his videos where he told someone they would run into hundreds of hurdles. The person responded that he did not need hundreds of hurdles. That comment sticks with Alston because it represents the exact mindset that keeps most people stuck before they ever get started. Even if you shadowed Alston every single day and copied every step he took, your path would still be slightly different. Your workflow tool would fail to connect the same way his did. Your audience would respond differently. Your TikTok hooks would land differently. There is no version of this where you skip the failure portion of the program.

The fear of failure does not protect you from failure. It just costs you the time you would have spent learning from it.

The Sports Analogy That Changes How You See Every Setback

Think about baseball. A great hitter has a batting average around .330. That means he fails to get a hit roughly 67 percent of the time. Every at-bat that does not result in a hit is, technically, a failure. In soccer, most shot attempts do not result in goals. In hockey, same thing. In basketball, great shooters miss more shots than they make over the course of a game.

Nobody watches a baseball game and says the player should quit because he made an out. The out is built into the expectation. Failure is the baseline, and success is what rises above it.

Online business works on the same structure. You will post TikToks that get stuck in the 200 to 300 view range. Alston talks about this from direct personal experience. A video at 200 views is technically a failure by most outside metrics. But the question is not whether it failed. The question is what you can learn from it. What does the hook look like on the videos that performed better? What time did you post? What was the thumbnail? What was the topic and how clearly did you frame the problem in the first five seconds?

You have to make bad content to understand what good content looks like. You have to try different approaches before you find the one that resonates. Athletes try different stances, different jump shots, different grip positions. They do not land on the optimal approach at the first attempt. It develops through repetition and honest adjustment after each rep.

The people who succeed most often in online business are not the smartest ones. They are the ones who jump in with both feet and start doing the work, then learn as they go. Overthinking, over-analyzing, and trying to protect yourself from every potential misstep will cost you far more time than the actual failures.

Hurdles vs. Roadblocks: The Distinction That Changes Your Response

Not every obstacle is the same type of obstacle, and how you respond should depend on which type you are actually facing.

A hurdle is designed to slow you down, not stop you. Think about speed bumps in a parking lot. They exist to keep you from racing through at full speed. They are not there to prevent you from reaching your destination. You slow down, you get over them, you keep moving. In online business, a hurdle looks like a workflow tool that does not connect as smoothly as the tutorial showed. It looks like an editing session that takes three hours instead of one. It looks like pressing the wrong button and having a YouTube video get cancelled before saving, something that actually happened to Alston. These are frustrating. They are not permanent. You go to Google, you go to ChatGPT, you figure it out, and you keep going.

A roadblock is different. A roadblock forces you to turn around and change direction entirely. In online business, a true roadblock is building a revenue model on someone else’s intellectual property without permission. If you are making and selling products with Mickey Mouse on them, Disney will eventually find out. They will send a letter, or your Etsy account will get shut down. You cannot work harder to push through that obstacle. You have to change what you are doing from the ground up.

Most of what feels like a roadblock is actually a hurdle. Most of what feels like a final verdict is actually just a speed bump that requires a bit of research and a bit of patience. The ability to tell the difference will save you from quitting unnecessarily and from wasting time trying to push through something that genuinely requires a different approach.

Not sure which type of online business fits your actual skills and background?

Find your starting point at finder.platformproof.com.

The Honest Drawbacks of Embracing Failure as a Strategy

Telling someone to embrace failure is easier to say than to live. Here is what it actually costs, and why it is worth paying anyway.

Time is the primary cost. If you build a full content system around a niche that does not match your knowledge base or has no real buyer demand, you can spend months learning that lesson. The answer is not to avoid trying entirely. The answer is to validate before you invest deeply, to test with small pieces of content before building out full products, and to pay attention to early signals before committing fully to a direction.

There is also an emotional cost. Posting something you worked hard on and watching it reach 200 people hurts. That feeling does not disappear just because you understand intellectually that failure is part of the process. The people who keep going are not people who stop feeling that sting. They are people who feel it and post again anyway, because they know the only way the sting gets smaller is by getting better, and the only way to get better is to keep doing the work.

Alston says this honestly about his own channel. He has 138,000 subscribers and still posts videos that cap out at 2,000 views. By outside standards, those are failures. His own internal standard for the channel is higher than that. He says it out loud because pretending those videos performed fine would be dishonest, and because the honest version of the story is more useful to someone starting out than the polished version would be.

The drawback of embracing failure is that you have to feel it every time it shows up. The benefit is that you eventually get skilled enough that it shows up less often, and when it does, you already know exactly what to do with it.

How to Actually Respond When Failure Shows Up

The outcome of your online business is not decided by how many times you fail. It is decided by how you respond when failure shows up. That is the whole game, and it is simpler than most people make it.

When a piece of content does not perform, ask what you can learn from the data rather than retreating into self-criticism. Did the hook hold attention through the first few seconds? Did similar content from other creators on the same topic perform better? Was the audio or visual quality lower than your usual standard? Was the problem you were solving one your audience actually cares about urgently, or was it something interesting to you but less pressing to them?

When a niche is not clicking, ask whether you have given it a real test period. A few weeks of content is not enough data to draw conclusions. A few months of consistent effort with no traction at all is a real signal worth taking seriously. But most people who say their niche is not working have posted sporadically for a few weeks and drawn conclusions from a sample size that is too small to mean anything.

When a product is not selling, examine the offer before blaming the audience. Is the price aligned with the perceived value? Does the content that leads to it build enough trust and proof? Is the problem your product solves one the audience feels urgently, or is it one they think they might want to solve someday?

Failure is data. The creators who move forward through failure treat every poor result as a question worth investigating rather than a final verdict worth accepting. That shift in interpretation is the difference between building something over time and cycling through restarts that never compound into anything.

What Your Parents Already Knew About This

Near the end of the video, Alston shares something personal. His parents grew up in circumstances that required real sacrifice before any of the outcomes they wanted were available to them. His mother grew up in North Charleston, South Carolina, and she can remember going downtown when it was still segregated. Through working two and three jobs at the same time, running side hustles, and maintaining consistent effort over years, his parents were able to buy a house, then build their own, and then leave something behind for their children and grandchildren.

That is the version of failure and persistence that people used to understand clearly because the stakes were unavoidably obvious. You worked, you ran into obstacles, you kept working. There was no version of that path where you waited until you felt ready or until the risks were low enough to feel comfortable. You moved, you adjusted, and you built over time.

Online business in 2025 does not carry those same stakes. The cost of trying is lower than it has ever been. A TikTok that gets 200 views costs you time, not years of your life. A niche that does not work costs you a few months, not a decade. The stakes are low enough that the only real reason to hold back is fear of a discomfort that is genuinely manageable. Knowing that, and deciding to start anyway, is the actual starting point.

Find Your X

Everything in this video leads to one practical first step: identifying which type of online business actually fits your skills, background, and real capacity for consistent effort. You can start with either of the niche ideas Alston covers here. But the real work is matching a niche to what you already know and what you are genuinely willing to build on consistently over time.

The Platform Proof Finder walks you through a short set of questions and gives you a specific starting direction based on your background. It takes a few minutes and it replaces months of guessing and restarting. Start at finder.platformproof.com.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is it really normal to fail this much when starting an online business?

Yes. Alston has 138,000 subscribers and still posts videos that cap at 2,000 views. TikToks stuck in the 200 to 300 view range. Blog posts that did not connect. These are not signs of doing something wrong. They are the standard experience for anyone creating content at real volume over real time. The creators who appear never to fail are either not posting often enough to collect honest data or not being transparent about their results.

What is the real difference between a hurdle and a roadblock in online business?

A hurdle slows you down but does not stop you permanently. A tool that fails to connect, a video file that gets lost, an edit that takes far longer than expected. You find the fix and keep going. A roadblock forces a full direction change. Building a business on trademarked or copyrighted material without permission is a roadblock. Working harder will not solve it. You have to change what you are building entirely.

Do I need a completely original niche idea to succeed online?

No. Alston says the opposite is true. If a hundred courses already exist on your topic, that is market validation. People are buying. Your job is not to invent something untapped. Your job is to bring your specific knowledge, angle, and sub-niche focus to something that already has proven demand. Microsoft Excel has hundreds of courses on Udemy. That is a reason to enter the space, not a reason to avoid it.

How do I validate whether a niche actually has buyers before I build anything?

Go to Udemy and check how many people have enrolled in courses on your topic. Enrollment numbers are visible. If thousands of people have paid for courses in your area, demand is real. From there, look for sub-niches that are underserved. Microsoft Excel for architects, or Excel for small business owners, may have far fewer courses than general Excel. That gap between proven demand and low sub-niche competition is your opening.

Can you actually make money in the death and dying niche?

Yes. The funeral industry is a multi-billion dollar market. People dealing with the loss of a loved one are actively searching for practical guidance: what documents to file, how to handle an estate, what to do without a will, how to manage creditors. Affiliate programs for funeral and estate services exist. Digital products like step-by-step checklists and mini-courses solve a real and urgent problem. The emotional weight of the niche keeps most creators away from it, which means less competition for those who show up with clear and honest content.

How many niches should I try before concluding something is not working?

There is no fixed number, but a few weeks of posting is not enough data to draw real conclusions. A few months of consistent effort with no traction at all is a real signal worth examining carefully. More useful than counting attempts is asking better questions about the attempts you have already made. Is the niche one where people are actively searching for solutions? Have you been creating content consistently enough to generate meaningful data? Is your content solving a specific named problem or just discussing a general topic area?

Why does going where other creators are not willing to go create a real advantage?

Most creators pick one platform and stay there. They list a course on Udemy and wait for organic discovery. They post on YouTube and do nothing else. Taking one extra step, like creating Excel tutorials on LinkedIn when almost nobody else is doing it, puts you in front of professionals who are actively building skills for job applications and promotions. You are not competing against thousands of Udemy creators. You are nearly alone in a professional network with far more buyers per creator than the saturated marketplaces have.

What should I do if fear of failure is preventing me from starting at all?

Recognize that waiting does not reduce the failure ahead of you. It just delays it and extends the timeline before your learning compounds into skill. Every piece of content you have not made is a lesson you have not learned yet. The goal is not to feel confident before you start. The goal is to start before you feel confident and let the reps build the confidence over time. The most successful people in online business are usually not the most naturally talented. They are the ones who started doing the work before they felt ready and refused to stop when it got difficult.

Sources

Alston Godbolt, “The Ugly Truth About Starting an Online Business,” YouTube, https://youtu.be/oysQ6ztqyg4
Udemy course marketplace for niche validation: https://www.udemy.com
Platform Proof Finder for niche matching: https://finder.platformproof.com

Helping 1 million working adults make their first $3,000 online with the skills they already have. Alston Godbolt, Platform Proof.