SELLEST OSAST
Big projects routinely blow their budgets, schedules, and sometimes the companies building them. But research across 16,000+ projects reveals surprisingly consistent rules for getting them right.
In this solo episode, I translate lessons from How Big Things Get Done by Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner into practical strategies for entrepreneurs building factories, energy projects, infrastructure, and other capital-intensive businesses.
Seven lessons for entrepreneurs:
- Assume your forecast is too optimistic. Compare your project with what actually happened on similar projects, not just your own projections.
- Plan slowly so you can build quickly. Mistakes are cheap on paper and brutally expensive once construction starts.
- Don’t innovate everywhere at once. A breakthrough project can combine mostly proven components with a small amount of genuinely novel technology.
- Find your LEGO brick. Standardization, repetition, and modularity can dramatically reduce cost, complexity, and execution risk.
- Hire people with scars. Your first commercial project should not also be your contractor’s first attempt at building one.
- Shrink the window of vulnerability. Every extra month creates more exposure to inflation, tariffs, elections, supply chains, and other surprises.
- Align incentives before construction begins. Structure contracts so everyone wins when the project succeeds, rather than profiting from delays and change orders.
Read about all 15 tips here:
https://entrepreneursforimpact.substack.com/p/15-rules-for-building-big-projects
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Ameerika Ühendriigid
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