Not Rich. Not Famous. Successful where it actually counts.
Now documenting the real, unvarnished journey to £3,000 a month online. No fake sports cars. No shiny objects.
- Monthly target
- £3,000
- Earned online so far
- £0
- Teardowns published
- 7
Hi, I'm Jon.
I'm 59. My one and only major goal in life was simple: raise four children and give them a better upbringing than I had. Today all four are grown up, thriving, and doing better than I did.
By my own definition of success, I've already won.
So why Jonny Success?
Because like a lot of people with a busy mind, I have a dozen half-finished projects sitting on my hard drive. And every time I look online, I see the same thing: 20-somethings selling push-button wealth and automated side hustles to people who are often in a mild state of desperation.
I'm tired of the noise, and you probably are too.
This site is a live documentary of two things running side by side.
The Teardowns
Popular make-money-online trends, picked apart. AI ebooks, dropshipping, print on demand, faceless channels, automated shops. The hidden costs, the tech barriers, and why they rarely work for normal people.
Read the teardownsThe £3k Lab
Using modern technology, and billions of dollars of AI development, to build real, sustainable online income towards £3,000 a month. The real numbers, the failures and the wins.
See the numbersBehind both sits The Notebook, the thinking that started it all.
No hype. No flattery. Just real work in public.
Latest teardowns
- #07
Very tough moat
A faceless UK know-how channel: a proven model with a very tough moat
Pitched by Claude. The faceless explainer is the playbook everyone is running, and the channels already doing renters' rights and tax have the back catalogues to prove it.
- #06
Only works if you belong
Honest product comparisons: affiliate marketing dressed up as a public service
ChatGPT's third idea in the AI challenge. Honest reviews with affiliate links. It works, but only if you skip to the end and ignore the hard bit.
- #05
Pick the problem first
One small download for a niche problem: the right shape with nothing in it
ChatGPT's second idea in the AI challenge. Sell a simple checklist or template. The format works. The idea forgot to say who it's for.
Latest from the Lab
- #04
I filtered fifteen ideas down to zero
Four statements about what I will and will not do, run against fifteen AI business ideas. Fifteen in, zero out, and why the prompt was the problem.
- #03
Day 1: five AIs, fifteen business ideas
Five AIs, three ideas each, all meant to start for £0. Here are all fifteen side by side.
- #02
How one question to Gemini became 1,132 odd jobs
The Odd Job Directory: a Friday afternoon prompt, three weeks of job cards, what slowed it down, and what's next.
From the Notebook
- #01
The myth of the college dropout founder
The garage-and-hoodie story is the exception. Most of the fastest-growing companies are started by people in their forties, with years of experience behind them.
- #02
Network, runway and boring problems: what corporate leavers carry with them
Three things an ex-corporate founder starts with that a first-timer spends years trying to build.
- #03
Executive Eddie vs Hustling Joe: two founders, the same four milestones
How an insider and an outsider handle spotting an idea, raising money, hiring and a crisis. And the mistake each one is most likely to make.
Latest in my own words: It's not yours until you make it yours and A few good eggs in every basket.
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Looking for something real to try?
The Odd Job Directory is my free list of over 1,100 legitimate, unconventional ways to earn, from overnight price-label checks to backyard sales. Every card shows the startup cost, how hard it is and what it realistically pays, even when the honest answer is pocket money. Browse it without signing up.
Browse the directoryGot an idea? Get it roasted first.
Most business plans fail because nobody tells the founder the truth. Before you spend three months and thousands of pounds building something, paste it into Roast My Plan. It checks the behaviour, the costs and the execution risks, and tells you plainly what breaks. Free, no account, nothing stored.
Roast my plan