When you meet Benjamin Haugh today a confident business owner, husband, and father, you’d never guess the path he took to get here. His story is not the typical entrepreneurial journey. It is one marked by loss, rejection, resilience, and ultimately, redemption.
Raised in a religious cult in Waco, Texas, Ben’s earliest memories of faith weren’t of grace or love, but of control and fear. He describes an upbringing where image mattered more than authenticity, and where God was presented less as a source of comfort and more as a looming punishment.
“I wasn’t really taught to love God, I was taught to love the cult, the leaders and the way we lived… That was the only way.”
Education in his home was nearly nonexistent. His mother, clearly unequipped to homeschool ( to because of her intelligence but rather the chaos of managing many children in a small space) struggled to meet even the most basic requirements. Undiagnosed dyslexia left him staring at words that swirled into confusion. “Everything I looked at was a jumble,” Ben recalls. “I just felt stupid and got really good at pretending, until pretending only made me angry…”
Instead of support, he often faced blame. “My mom thought I was either not trying, stubborn, or just stupid,” he remembers. “Those words stung.”
“It taught me a lot though.. and that I can learn from those mistakes and instill confidence in my kids in ways, I never had.”
Inside the cult, there was no lifeline. No one stepped in to offer help or resources. The community’s message was clear: what happened in the home stayed there. “It sucked,” Ben says bluntly. “There was no support only silence and to this day the refusal of the people there to recognize
His family’s financial struggles compounded the problem. His father worked long hours at minimum-wage jobs but not just anywhere. The jobs were within the cult community itself, further binding the family’s livelihood to the very system that oppressed them. And yet, even in their exhaustion and need, the family’s highest priority wasn’t each other it was the cult’s demand for them to serve the community. Their time, energy, and devotion were consumed by the group’s expectations, leaving little space for authentic family connection.
“I hated pretending,” Ben says. “I hated the fakeness. I knew if I could ever escape, I wanted to live a life that was real, honest and authentic.”
At 15 he was sent away. He was then shunned, put in Juvenile Detention for several months until a and sent to a boys ’home for a year. By 16, he was legally emancipated, alone in the world with no family, no support system, and no roadmap forward.
At the boys ’home, “Youth Reach of Houston” leaders quickly realized he was impressively far behind in school. Catching up in one year was impossible. But what Ben lacked in academics, he made up for with his hands. He built beds, repaired spaces, and learned that intelligence comes in many forms. The leaders at Youth Reach, took the time to ask questions, try to understand and instill confidence, it was the first time, for Ben, he didn’t feel judged and could finally be himself.
“I questioned whether I could ever make it in the real world,” he admits. “But I had no choice I had to try.”
It was there that a spark ignited. He discovered that while he might not be destined for a university classroom, he had a sharp mind for business. He had an extraordinary memory, an instinct for numbers and strategy, and most importantly, a relentless drive to prove wrong those who said he would never succeed outside the cult.
Yet perhaps the most profound transformation wasn’t in his career path, but in his faith.
“When I was tossed out as a teenager and no one cared enough to see me, talk to me, or even check on me. I realized what I had been taught about God was 1000% wrong,” Ben says.
The God he had grown up fearing was not the God he eventually came to know.
Instead of judgment, he found love. Instead of punishment, he found grace. Instead of oppression, he found freedom.
Today, Ben’s faith is not tied to a system or performance…it is rooted in a personal relationship with God.
“As a Christian and a business owner, I’ve learned from my upbringing exactly how not to treat people. If that’s the one positive lesson I gained, maybe it’s the most important one.”
Now a successful entrepreneur, husband, and father, Ben carries those lessons into every area of his life.
Ben’s story is a testament to the fact that even the darkest beginnings can give way to light. The same boy who was told he was worthless has built a life of purpose, not in spite of his past, but because he refused to let it define him.
For leaders of faith, Ben’s journey carries a powerful reminder:
In Ben’s own words:
“My childhood was awful, but it gave me clarity. I would never raise my kids the way I was raised. It forced me to become someone different—more thoughtful, more intentional.”
From cult to CEO, from rejection to redemption, from fear to faith. Benjamin Haugh’s life proves that God can turn even the darkest beginnings into a legacy of hope and leadership. At just 18, he founded All Nation Restoration in Austin, and has built it into a thriving company that reflects both resilience and faith in action. Refusing the label of “victim,” Ben chose instead to transform every challenge into growth, every setback into strategy, and every hardship into fuel for his calling. That defining choice to see possibility where others saw only limits, is what makes him not just a successful business owner, but a testimony of God’s redeeming power in motion.
