What Working Construction at Age 8 Taught Me About Building Wealth
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I helped pour my first concrete pad when most kids were learning multiplication tables.
By the time I was 8, I was my dad's right-hand man at his concrete business. Really, I had been pitching in since I was 6. While other kids spent summers playing Nintendo, I was learning how to level ground, set forms, and pour concrete in good ole North Dakota.
Back then, I thought I was just doing manual labor. Turns out, I was getting a master class in building wealth.
Here's what pouring concrete as a kid taught me about making money:
Good Foundations Matter More Than Fancy Finishes
Ask any concrete guy — the prep work underground matters more than what people see on top. You can make concrete look pretty with decorative stamping (I did plenty of that later), but if the base isn't solid, it'll crack and fail.
Same goes for wealth.
Everyone wants to talk about the decorative stamping of their wealth — the Porsche or the vacation home. But true wealth is built on an unsexy foundation:
Learning to use good debt
Funding assets over liabilities
Building assets that appreciate over time
Reinvesting profits back into your business
I learned this lesson twice. First in concrete, then again when I started MAK Construction in 2014. We grew slowly — one employee, then another, then a few more each year. No fancy office. No flashy trucks. Just reinvesting profits and building a solid base.
Today, we've grown $25M in annual revenue across my companies. But that foundation took 14 years to build.
The Real Money Is In Solving Problems Nobody Wants to Deal With
Nobody dreams about pouring concrete for a living. It's hard, dirty work. Your back hurts. Your knees ache. You're either sweating or freezing depending on the season.
But here's the thing about dirty jobs: They pay well because most people don't want to do them.
I took this lesson and applied it to real estate. While everyone chases multi-family properties, I focused on luxury storage. Not glamorous. But the returns are incredible because:
Strong institutional exit potential
Lower management intensity
Automated operations
No resident drama
Easier scalability
The harder something is, the less competition you'll face. Find the problems others avoid, and you'll find opportunity.
Small Details Create Big Problems
One small mistake in concrete work compounds into major headaches. Set your forms off by an inch? That tiny error can ruin an entire pour.
Business works exactly the same way.
When I started MAK Construction, I tracked every detail in Excel — costs, estimates, margins. I knew my numbers cold. One missing expense or wrong estimate could sink a project.
Even today, well into 8 figs of revenue, I still obsess over the small stuff. Because little errors compound into big losses.
You Have to Show Up When Nobody's Watching
Concrete doesn't care if you're tired. It doesn't care if it's 95 degrees out. When it's time to pour, you pour.
I've poured a lot of concrete, shoveled a lot of snow, and spent countless hours driving to small towns nobody's heard of. Not because anyone was watching. But because the work needed to get done.
Building wealth works the same way. The real progress happens when nobody's looking:
Running estimates at night after grinding a 9-5 all day
Learning new skills while others watch Netflix
Making calls and building relationships instead of taking days off
Most people want the highlight reel. They want the flashy revene. The real estate portfolio. The success story.
But true wealth is built in those unsexy moments when you're just showing up and doing the work.
Trust Your Tools, Trust Your Team
Working concrete young taught me about trusting tools and people. You need solid equipment. You need skilled workers. Most importantly, you need to trust both.
I learned to delegate by watching my dad run his concrete business. Later, I had to relearn this lesson building both MAK Construction and MAK Capital.
You can't grow if you micromanage everything. Find good people, train them well, trust them to execute.
As Brandon Turner told me — if you can't leave your business for 30 days, you haven't built anything but a job you can't escape.
The Foundations Still Matter
Today, I run construction and development companies exceeding what I ever thought was possible.
But I still think like that 8-year-old learning concrete work:
Focus on unsexy problems.
Build solid foundations.
Show up consistently.
Watch the details.
Trust your team.
The tools have changed. But the principles I learned pouring concrete still guide how I build wealth today.
Now I'm teaching these same principles to my three kids. Thankfully, they don’t have to not pour concrete at age 8. But they're learning the foundations of building wealth, one lesson at a time.
P.S. If you found this valuable, share it with another real estate investor who needs to hear it.
Inspiring story!
Wealth is not built overnight.
It requires hard work, discipline, a long-term perspective, and a willingness to focus on fundamentals and solve problems that others avoid.