When I was 18 years old, I founded All Nation Restoration in Austin, Texas, focused on water, fire, and mold remediation across Central Texas. It wasn’t a leap into the unknown I’d already been working in the restoration industry since I was 15. Like most young entrepreneurs, I started with what I had: drive, energy, and a good friend willing to join me.
In the early days, most of my employees were my peers either slightly older or younger. The age gap between me and my crew was minimal, and while none of us had much experience, we were learning together. We were grinding, problem-solving, and figuring it out in real time. But as the company grew and I gained experience and mastery in the trade, I noticed something deeply frustrating.
It became nearly impossible to hire older employees especially those with significant years under their belt. Time and time again, those hires ended in being disrespected, manipulated, or outright attacked. In the worst cases, they actively tried to dismantle the company from the inside. Why? Insecurity.
When you’re young and in charge, it triggers something in the wrong type of person jealousy, bitterness, ego. Rather than showing up as mentors or collaborators, many older hires came in feeling threatened. Instead of supporting the business and sharing wisdom, they made it their mission to prove I didn’t deserve the role I had built for myself.
This is one of the biggest challenges of starting a business young and it’s one no one really warns you about. Most business coaches will tell you the best time to start a business is early in life. I agree. But they don’t always tell you what it’s like trying to lead people twice your age when they’re too insecure to be led.
I told someone once, “It can get old being the smartest person in every room.” My wife gave me that look like “Come on, Ben, don’t flatter yourself.” I clarified: “It’s not that I think I’m the smartest person in every room. It’s that I’m often in rooms I built teams I assembled, meetings I called where I have to be the loudest voice, because leadership demands it.”
The other rooms? The ones I didn’t build? I’m usually the target. Someone’s trying to sell me something, prove something, or size me up.
Advice is hard to come by when you’re a young business owner. Especially when you’re offering full-time positions to people a decade older than you, hoping they’ll share knowledge and experience and instead they actively undercut you because their ego can’t stomach it.
If you’re 17, 18, 19, 20 years old starting a business, and it feels like your team would rather be flipping burgers than following your lead, you’re not crazy. You’re just early. And you’ll need to hire from your peer group, people who respect you because they’re walking the same uphill path. People who don’t feel the need to tear you down to feel tall.
And yes, it’s frustrating. Sometimes infuriating. But if you stick with it, if you keep pushing and growing, something amazing happens: you become the experienced one. You become the 35- or 40-year-old business owner with the track record, and suddenly it’s easier to hire the kind of people who once couldn’t handle taking direction from you. Because now, they’re not threatened. Now, the gap makes sense. Now, you make sense.
This shift is happening now at All Nation. The older I’ve gotten, the easier it’s become to hire the right people—people with experience, maturity, and the humility to work as a team, regardless of age. But it took a long time to get here.
If you’re just starting out and it feels like the people around you don’t get it, or don’t take it seriously, don’t give up. Stay in the game. Time has a way of leveling the field and if you build with integrity, work ethic, and focus, your time will come.
Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay in business.
