It's All Trew: Exactly how narrow does a niche have to be?

Down through the years, I have known or heard of several people who found their niche in life even though it was narrow and limited in scope. I once interviewed an old man, a grandfather of a friend, who told of his niche when he was growing up in Arkansas. It seems the community held a barn dance once a month in a large barn with a rough plank floor. As most of the crowd were young folks who danced barefooted occasionally, they picked up a splinter or two. The young boy kept a sharp-pointed knife and homemade tweezers ready for use. When the need arose, he sat with tools in hand, removed the splinter and applied a disinfectant containing mostly moonshine. For this service, he charged a penny. His services as a "splinter-picker" earned him free admission to the monthly barn dances. A man named Mr. Street arrived on main street in early McLean, Texas, each Saturday morning. Both pants and coat pockets were filled with refurbished, repaired and sharpened used pocketknives. He tried to trade knives with every man he met that day, always insisting on a nickel or a dime "to boot." It was a needed service and earned him a bit of spending money during the hard times of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. His personal niche was the fact he was a well-known "wart rubber." Mothers brought their children plagued with warts to Mr. Street for the "cure." He rubbed the warts, and within a few days the warts went away. For this service, he did not charge, but I imagine it sold a lot of knives...read more