A Foundation of Faith: How Tyrone Murphy built a life of purpose so he could help others do the same

Tyrone Murphy was born into the foster care system and had difficulties in school. Now a business owner, he has helped hundreds by using his construction firm as a ministry of hope and opportunity.

In spending the past decade working on homes, churches and commercial properties, restoring neighborhoods and creating jobs in Chicago and beyond, what matters most to Tyrone Murphy is the people.

Murphy, 40, estimates helping roughly 200 families and employing more than 200 workers over the years. Most recently, Mayor Brandon Johnson awarded him work on the 1901 Project’s development of Chicago’s West Side.

“What made me get off into this field was I saw the need for community,” Murphy said. “I always had an itch for the elders and the kids, providing or servicing them in any type of way.”

Serving others is the foundation of his business, Murphy’s Construction LLC, which he started in 2017. He hires people, teaches them skilled trades and gives them opportunities to build lives for themselves.

He has worked with recovering drug addicts and the formerly incarcerated.

“I used to teach at Saving Our Sons Trading School, right there on Lake and Pulaski. I would teach the guys how to build birdhouses. From the birdhouses, I taught them how to read the tape measure.”

The life Murphy enjoys today is one few would have predicted.

Born into the foster care system in Gary, Indiana, he entered the world weighing only about a pound. He never knew his biological mother and spent his early childhood moving from his first foster home to eventually being adopted by a family in Gary.

Murphy struggled with reading, battled anger and dreaded speaking in front of groups. School felt like a reminder of everything he couldn’t do well.

“Anyone who knows me knows I had troubles in school,” he said. “I had a reading disability. I had a lot of hurdles.”

For a time, the weight of those struggles became overwhelming. But looking back, Murphy realized something he didn’t then.

“I was different,” he said. “At the end of the day, I overcame all of that. I feel like someone out there really needs to hear that.”

Eventually he moved to Chicago, where he saw opportunity.

“When I came to Chicago, I thought I made it,” he said. “It’s opportunity here. Why not start over, rebrand myself? I think I need to be an entrepreneur.”

Determined to build a better life, he earned his GED at Lincoln’s Challenge Academy in Rantoul, Illinois. But education was only part of the journey. With the steadfast support of his wife, he worked tirelessly to provide for their growing family, though doing so was often difficult.

“I had my son and daughter at the time, and we were struggling,” he said. “The doors of jobs kept closing. But it wasn’t anything that I was doing—it was God stretching my faith, telling me to get out and do this work for the community.”

Murphy says he never walked the journey alone. He credits his wife of more than 14 years as his steadfast rock, whose unwavering support carried him through life’s hardest seasons and made it possible for him to keep pursuing the work he believes God called him to do.

Rather than accept defeat, Murphy leaned into the calling he had carried since he was a teenager.

“When I was young, I saw the need to work for yourself as being so important.”

He began learning every trade he could, with those skills eventually becoming Murphy’s Construction.

As he aspires to expand his community impact, he continues developing his own knowledge and skillset through the 1901 Community Implementation Committee where he takes classes every week learning how to scale a business and more.

Asked what keeps so many people from reaching their potential and finding lasting employment, Murphy’s answer is swift and sobering.

“Fear.”

“If I could sum it all up in one word, it would be fear,” he said. “Fear stopped me as a young adult from a lot of things I really wanted to do.”

On what he hopes readers take away from his story, Murphy didn’t point to his business, his success, or even the hundreds of people he’s employed.

Instead, he pointed to his faith.

“Lean not on your own understanding, but trust in God in all your ways, and He will direct your path,” he said. “Trust the process, and don’t be so hard on yourself. Failure is good sometimes. That’s growth. You grow from that and keep going.”

To learn more about Murphy’s Construction LLC, support its mission of creating opportunities and changing lives in Chicago or learn more about Murphy’s upcoming book, “The Little Old Lady,” visit the website here.