Every construction business has chased an opportunity that looked great and turned into a money pit. Herb Sargent calls it the Trojan horse.

Herb is board chair of Sargent Corporation, a heavy civil contractor in Maine that turned 100 this year. Scott Peper is CEO and founder of Mobilization Funding. They wrote Field Tested: Lessons in Leading, Losing, and Winning in Construction together, and they walked me through how to spot the horse before you wheel it in.

Takeaways:

• Set the number where you'll walk away before you start. Sargent lost money in ready mix every year for ten years.

• Let your estimator tell you what the job costs before ego decides you have to have it.

• "I gotta keep money coming in" usually means overbillings went to start other jobs.

• Every growing owner becomes the bottleneck. Hand someone the keys for half a day, then debrief.

• One 15-minute conversation about legacy got Sargent's best operator mentoring a 23-year-old foreman.

Connect with Herb Sargent:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/herb-sargent-esop/

Sargent Corporation: https://sargent.us/

Starbuck and Sargent podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/starbuck-sargent/id1856531285

Connect with Scott Peper:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-peper-9387288/

Mobilization Funding: https://mobilizationfunding.com/

The Mobilization Mindset podcast: https://mobilizationfunding.com/videos/

Pre-order Field Tested on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Field-Tested-Lessons-Leading-Construction/dp/B0HM2TXYS3

The Shift Leadership Course: https://theshift.constructiongenius.com/