Caldwell Constructors was recently featured on Upstate Business Journal:
“Don’t do this, you idiot.”
Those words were in the back of Gary Caldwell’s mind in May 2005 when he thought of going into business for himself.
To be fair, his hesitancy was not without reason. After all, Caldwell had worked for 30 years in the commercial construction industry in the Upstate, building up a strong and stable career for himself. At the time, he was a project manager at Greenville-based Trehel Corporation, doing work he enjoyed with people he admired and respected.
Having just hit 50, he should’ve been coasting toward retirement. Why make things difficult for himself? His wife, Leigh Caldwell, knew he’d been considering it, and told him, “You work so hard for others. You’ll kill yourself if you do it for yourself.”
But he still kept thinking of what it would be like to build something not just for himself, but for his family in the years to come.