TL;DR: Every contractor faces jobs that test their limits. When you're neck-deep in problems with people watching your every move, that's when you discover what you're made of. The biggest growth comes from the jobs where everything seems stacked against you - here's what I learned when a $13M project nearly broke me before becoming a $40M success story.

The Setup: Opportunity Comes Knocking

When I was 28, we got our shot at the big leagues - a chance to bid on a major project three hours from our New Orleans home base. The owner had hired FLUOR, the second-largest EPC contractor in the world, to build their project. If you need an LNG plant in Mozambique or an ethane cracker in Southwest Louisiana, FLUOR is who you call.

We'd never put together such a comprehensive proposal. Five people, three weeks of work, hundreds of pages. When we finally got the call months later - "We want to award you the job, can you start in a month?" - I immediately volunteered as PM.

The contract started at $13M. Within the first week, we had a $3M change order for extra roadwork. I packed up and moved to Lake Charles with my team, ready to prove ourselves.

I was completely unprepared for what was coming.

The Reality Check: Everything Is Harder When No One Knows You

For the first five months, we fell flat on our faces.

We weren't just battling the work - we were battling perception. We had to earn trust with the local DOTD folks who didn't know us, a third-party engineer who didn't know us, the city, the parish, and FLUOR who definitely didn't know us. In construction, being unknown is a massive disadvantage. Every stakeholder begins with skepticism when you haven't proven yourself in their territory.

We struggled to adapt to the industrial safety culture - far more rigorous than the DOT work we were used to. Documentation requirements nearly buried us. We tried hiring 2/3 of our workforce locally and building several new utility crews from scratch - something we'd never attempted on a single job. It backfired.

When unexpected utility delays hit, no one wanted to hear excuses. They needed their road open to support a $13 billion job and move modules the size of motels to complete their massive chemical plant. Period.

The reality became painfully clear: we were losing money, falling behind schedule, and risking our reputation with every passing day.

My family's business. My name. Everything was on the line. And I had no idea how to fix it.

The Low Point: When Your Owner Starts Looking Elsewhere

Finally, the owner hinted they were considering bringing in another contractor to finish our utility work. We had 5,000 people driving through our site daily, watching us struggle. Our jack and bore subcontractor barely completed the 96-inch bore across the road.

I slept at my desk multiple nights trying to fix invoices because I'd hired the wrong administrative staff. Six months into the job, we still hadn't received payment for our first invoice. The backup documentation required for T&M work was unlike anything we’d ever encountered.

Looking back, the warning signs were blinking red from the beginning: crews not starting on time, cost overruns from day one, an increasingly frustrated owner, and falling behind schedule in the first weeks.

This wasn't just challenging - it was a public reckoning happening in real-time.

The Turnaround: Systems, Not Heroes

The turnaround began with a decision. We decided this job would not break us.

First, I asked for help. Several seasoned superintendents - Steve, Jimmy, James, Mike, Will - came over from New Orleans to support us on some critical work operations. A committee was formed of senior management to visit the site monthly and meet with the project team. We got the best crews our company had to offer. We got rid of some bad apples. We hired the right field engineers (especially Amber and Brian, a Kiewit alum) and found Susan, who transformed our invoicing process.

Then, we implemented specific systems that created accountability:

1. Daily battle rhythm: 6 AM start with motivational safety talks for all crews. We stayed engaged throughout the day, every day.

2. Visual metrics on trailer walls:

   • Foreman productivity by crew (1.0 = budget, 1.1 = 10% ahead)

   • Weekly goals for every crew updated every Sunday

   • Daily & weekly P&L

   • Job-to-date productivity factor

   • Safety incidents and near misses

   • Hazard elimination cards completed

   • Equipment audits completed

   • Toolbox talk compliance

3. Documentation discipline:

   • End-of-shift reports for every crew

   • Issues resolution log reviewed at each progress meeting

   • Detailed change order tracking with written approvals

4. Owner communication strategy:

   • Open admission when we made mistakes

   • Prepared for every progress meeting

   • Responsive field engineers for real-time updates

   • Strict adherence to contract documentation

We treated the smallest details as mission-critical: every traffic cone placed exactly 20' apart, equipment parked in orderly lines, dirt piles dressed at the end of each day, and extreme housekeeping and quality focus. We weren't just building a road - we were representing the owner to the public.

The Result: From Crisis to Conquest

What started as a nightmare transformed into one the most successful projects in our company's history. We worked over 200K man-hours without a recordable incident. The quality of the finished product was something we could all be proud of. Our productivity factor improvement from 0.60 to 1.03 was a dramatic turnaround. We achieved double-digit gross profit, despite the rough start.

The contract grew from $13M to over $40M as we earned the owner's trust and took on additional paving, grading, and utility work in the plant.

The owner recognized the value we delivered. They appreciated how hard we worked to navigate the utility delays and coordinate with engineers on value engineering improvements. They knew the utility issues weren't our fault, but they saw how we fought through them without excuses.

The network effects of our performance were powerful. Each stakeholder we won over became a node in our reputation network. That compounding value paid off when we won another large roadway project with the same engineer at another plant nearby. Eventually, we became the de facto go-to contractor for public roadway improvements supporting large petro/LNG facilities throughout Louisiana.

And we all learned a ton working for one of the top EPC contractors in the world, observing the largest project in our state’s history get built.

The project eventually won awards. You can see the highlights in these videos:

But what those videos don't show is what it was like when we were in the trenches with everyone doubting whether we could deliver.

The Lesson: What Tough Jobs Teach Us

Tough jobs teach you what you're made of. I wouldn't have had the courage to start Edgevanta without having built that job, because surviving that kind of pressure forges something inside you that can't be learned any other way.

When you face a tough job:

1. Own the situation: No excuses about conditions, stakeholders, or circumstances. Focus on solutions, not problems. Every issue is ultimately a leadership challenge. Remember: “No bad teams, only bad leaders.”

2. Build repeatable systems: The metrics, daily routines, and documentation processes we established weren't just for that job - they became our standard operating procedure for future projects.

3. Build the right team: I learned that my job as a leader was to put the right people in the right positions, then give them what they needed to succeed.

4. Create accountability through visibility: The more visible our processes became - from safety metrics to documentation to execution schedules - the more everyone stepped up their game.

5. Show up every day with positivity and curiosity: Some mornings you won't want to face that site. It’s easy to hit snooze or drive straight to the office instead of the job. Show up anyway. At 6 AM. Ready to lead. The only way through is through.

I've had other tough jobs that don't have happy endings. Not every project becomes an award winner. But every tough job - even the ones where you take financial losses - builds the mental calluses you need for the next challenge.

Every contractor faces jobs that test their limits. The ones who succeed aren't the ones who avoid problems - they're the ones who get stronger with every test.

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About the Author

Tristan Wilson is the CEO and Founder of Edgevanta. We make AI agents for civil estimating. He is a 4th Generation Contractor, construction enthusiast, ultra runner, and bidding nerd. He worked his way up the ladder at Allan Myers in the Mid-Atlantic and his family’s former business Barriere Construction before starting Edgevanta in Nashville, where the company is based. Reach out to him at [email protected]