What I Learned from My Mistakes

It’s hard to believe that five years have already passed since I started working as a civil engineering construction manager. Amid my busy daily routine, I’ve had the opportunity to experience a wide variety of things. Naturally, having been in this job for five years, I’ve also had my share of unpleasant experiences and failures.

I’m embarrassed to admit it, but there were times when my work came to a standstill because of my own poor planning... Through these kinds of failures, I came to realize the importance of “behind-the-scenes effort.”

To begin with, what exactly is “behind-the-scenes effort”? I believe that, for construction management engineers, there are two main types of behind-the-scenes effort.

The first is planning. For example, when drawing blueprints, using color-coding to make them easy for craftsmen to understand, or creating 3D drawings to ensure explanations are intuitively clear—these efforts may not be immediately visible, but they ensure that work on-site runs smoothly.

Unfortunately, however, these efforts often go unnoticed by the craftsmen. Even if I stay up all night creating 3D drawings, when I show them to the craftsmen, their reaction usually ends with a simple comment like, “That’s easy to understand—nice.” Ordering materials and conducting preliminary surveys are also part of a construction management engineer’s job, but there are countless unseen efforts hidden within these tasks.

The second point is creating the right environment. Many site supervisors routinely take steps to make the craftsmen’s work easier—such as proposing design changes to adjust construction methods or switching to materials that are easier to work with—but these very actions are examples of admirable “behind-the-scenes efforts.”

Unseen Efforts = Unappreciated

So far, we’ve been discussing the importance of “unseen efforts,” but to ensure we don’t lose sight of that importance, there’s one thing we should keep in mind: unseen efforts often go unappreciated.

As mentioned above, due to the nature of a construction management engineer’s work, no matter how hard you try to plan ahead or create a supportive environment, it’s often taken for granted. No matter how much overtime you work to draw up blueprints, or how many all-nighters you pull to prepare change orders, the tradespeople who look at those blueprints the next day have no idea about any of that—and it doesn’t matter to them.

That’s exactly why it’s best to understand that you won’t always be thanked. By doing so, you’ll avoid getting caught up in pointless emotions like, ”I did so much,” or “Why won’t they thank me?”

To be honest, I didn’t understand this back then. There was a time when a proposal I’d spent all night working on was dismissed out of hand as “impossible,” and we ended up in a pretty intense argument. But now I can understand where the other person was coming from. After all, they’re a professional, too.

No matter how hard I think I worked, it’s all for nothing if I don’t end up with a good result. It’s like asking someone to buy a product that doesn’t work at all for 1 million yen. I thought I’d done my best, but in the end, the construction plan I came up with was just crap.

Just as I did, many people neglect to put in “behind-the-scenes effort” simply because they don’t receive recognition for it. This tendency becomes even more pronounced the more experienced they become. For anyone who wants to hone their skills as a construction management engineer, start their own business, or succeed as a freelancer, continuing to put in this behind-the-scenes effort is absolutely essential.

You might not get any thanks for it, but the accumulation of small tasks builds up your experience. Even if you create a 3D drawing and no one seems to think much of it, you’ll definitely gain the skill to create 3D drawings.

Even if, like me, you’re dismissed outright after proposing a change in construction methods, exploring different approaches on your own—and ultimately discovering a better way to do things—will deepen your understanding even further. I’m not saying there’s no such thing as wasted effort, but in the construction industry, there’s no doubt that putting in “behind-the-scenes effort” helps you gain valuable experience.

I really want you to understand the importance of “behind-the-scenes efforts.”

From the God of Construction