Prime contractors want to work with subcontractors that they're comfortable with. And most of the time, minority firms don't give the comfort level to the good old boys that they're used to. And most minorities don't fit into those types of networks. It's an industry dominated and controlled by white America. They make the rules.
Folks take care of their own.
So the only way to break into the big jobs is the hard way-starting from scratch, as he did. Smith grew up around construction sites. In the predominantly African American community of Marin City, his father owned a small trucking firm that hauled construction material. Marin City is surrounded by wealthy white professional communities where Smith went to college-track schools. He was a good student.