I was 30 in 1978 and at that time I had a contractors license in the State of California. At the time I was doing landscaping contracting and I found I could specialize in Sprinkler systems and do well and so I did at that time. I had already had an experience where my partner Contractor on a job in Rancho Santa Fe wanted me to hire people that didn't speak English well. This was a problem for me because I only knew about 10 or more words and phrases in Spanish like "Comida" (which means lunchtime and Trabajo which means work and Aqua which means water and a few other things like this. So, the problem came when I agreed to hire two guys but then my friends Supervisor or foreman who spoke fluent spanish had to go to another job suddenly to work and I was left alone with two guys who ONLY spoke Spanish. The problem was they couldn't tell me what I needed to know. They kept saying "Aqua" which means water but I really didn't get what the problem was. So, the problem was not solved. So, about 9 pm that night I found out what the problem was it was those very good workers had hit the main water line to a wealthy man's house and had shut off the water at the street. So, when he came home to his house and turned the water on at the street he got a 7 foot geyser of water in his front yard. So, the Landscape Architect and I at 9 pm going over his plans got a call from him being pretty upset (and rightly so). So, the architect and I went out then and fixed the problem within one hour, so we were finished by 11pm or midnight that day working.
After that, I wanted to use machines more than hire people because of the problems that it caused us both and the whole situation. The next job I contracted on I was also doing a sprinkler system then in 1978 but I got the bright idea of renting what is called a ditch witch. But this became problematic too because it started raining and wouldn't stop for a week and I got the ditch witch which is a trenching machine stuck up against a chain link fence in the mud. So, yes, one can hire and rent mechanical things like robots to replace workers but that doesn't always work either. So, what I'm saying here is that there are always unforeseen problems as an entrepreneur business owner that you will encounter and you have to be prepared to take responsibility for these problems financially no matter what they are or you are no longer in business.
It's that simple.
These are what ditch witching trenchers look like now here in 2022:
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