Benjamin Haugh will be the first to tell you:
“I had to make a choice.”
That’s the thing about leadership—sometimes it doesn’t come wrapped in ambition or intentionality. Sometimes, it’s not about having the perfect resume, a master plan, or even a burning desire to lead. Sometimes, leadership comes through the back door, sneaks up on you, and forces you into a role you never thought you’d play.
Ben Haugh didn’t set out to build a company. He didn’t dream of being the face of an organization or developing a culture that other people would depend on. There was no polished five-year plan or startup pitch deck. What there was, instead, was necessity— And somewhere along the way, in building All Nation Restoration, Ben became a leader. Not because he wanted to, but because the circumstances demanded it.
He didn’t even think he could be one.
“I never thought I was anything like a leader,” he told me. “I didn’t expect to be running a company. Honestly, it just happened—and I had no choice.”
But it didn’t happen entirely in a vacuum. In the very earliest days, when the idea of starting something was just a blurry notion, a friend showed up.
“My friend Chris—he needed a job at the time—and he said, ‘I’ll work for you. You don’t have to pay me, but I’ll start if you build it,” Ben recalled. “And I remember thinking, what? I hadn’t even decided I was going to build anything.”
Ben laughed as he told me this, still surprised by how it all began.
“Chris was willing to work for me… and I was 19 years old and couldn’t really read,” he said. “I was like, ‘What do you mean? I’m not your guy!’ But… I did it. And here I am, 15 years later. And Chris? He’s my General Manager now. We’re both middle-aged dudes—okay, in our 30s, which is the new 20s—with families. And we can look back and think, wow.
For Ben, that moment of belief from someone else pushed him toward a path he hadn’t yet chosen for himself. And even now, he reflects on that early leap with humility
“For myself, I guess I had no choice,” he said. “But I do love figuring things out. I love patterns. I love problem solving. I even love the stress of it at times.”
Ben shared some insights with me on what he’s learned about leadership over the years, and they go far beyond the typical advice you’ll find in business books.
“You don’t just optimize for efficiency—you optimize for influence,” he said. “Checking off tasks is not leadership. Guiding teams with direction is.”
This struck a chord. So often, we equate productivity with leadership. But Ben makes a critical distinction: a leader can’t think like an individual contributor. The job isn’t just about getting things done—it’s about creating momentum, direction, and clarity for others.
You can be the most efficient person in the room and still not be leading.
Another principle Ben has learned through the chaos and stress: you can’t be addicted to instant results.
“Leadership is playing the long game,” he said. “Patience, perseverance, humility—those are the things you need. It’s about navigating through uncertainty and not falling apart when things get messy.”
We live in a culture obsessed with immediacy—overnight success, viral growth, instant gratification. But Ben’s philosophy is deeply countercultural. He understands that leading a business is a long-haul journey, full of setbacks, ambiguity, and slow progress.
There’s a kind of emotional endurance in leadership that rarely gets talked about—but Ben lives it every day.
“Leaders are okay with silence,” he told me. “They don’t have to fill the space out of insecurity.”
It’s a subtle observation, but a profound one. In a world where many leaders feel pressure to always have the answer, always fill the void, always be ‘on’—Ben values the ability to sit in the silence. To observe. To think before speaking.
And here’s another myth he’s ready to dismantle: leaders aren’t naturally confident.
“I’m not naturally confident,” Ben said. “Confidence is a side effect of leadership. If I was waiting around to feel ready, I never would have started my companies.”
This hit me. So many of us wait for confidence before we act. We wait to feel prepared, certain, strong. But Ben reminds us that leadership is rarely born from confidence. More often, it’s born from uncertainty. It’s about stepping into the unknown despite the fear—not because you’re fearless, but because you know there’s work to be done.
“It sounds crazy,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s the reality.”
One of the most revealing parts of our conversation came when Ben spoke about how he handles problems inside All Nation Restoration.
“I realized as problems happen, I can’t just put on a band-aid,” he explained. “I have to look at the patterns. I take a long time to think about how to actually fix them.”.
This mindset is crucial. Many leaders are reactive—they fix what’s broken, patch things up, move on. But Ben is different. He doesn’t just solve problems; he studies them. He asks what the root cause is. He takes his time, digs in, does the research.
“If I just fixed the problem in the moment and didn’t look at the pattern,” he said, “All Nation Restoration would’ve closed its doors 15 years ago.”
That’s not just good business. That’s wisdom. That’s the kind of leadership that builds something sustainable.
What’s perhaps most remarkable about Ben Haugh’s journey is what he didn’t have.
He didn’t have a prestigious education. He didn’t have a family to fall back on or a roadmap for success handed down through generations.
“I had literally no backbone from a family who would give me any guidance,” he said.
And yet, here he is. Running a successful company. Leading people. Navigating crises. Making the hard calls. Building something that matters.
Ben Haugh is living proof that leadership doesn’t always come dressed in confidence or credentials. Sometimes, it comes wrapped in resilience, in resourcefulness, in that quiet inner fire that says, I’ll figure it out.
Ben says regularly to his friends, employees and even his family… Leadership is a choice.
After talking with Ben, I couldn’t help but reflect on the nature of leadership itself. Is it a calling? A talent? A skillset? Or is it simply the ability to keep moving forward when everything tells you to stop? Is it just purely choice? Are you born this way?
Maybe it’s all of those things.
But one thing is clear: leadership is something deep within a person. And while circumstances shape us, they also reveal us.
Ben admitted that years ago now, a sibling of his labeled his company a “2-man show”—which bothered Ben. He realized, I want more. And though he was at the time offended, he now realizes it’s those comments that lit a fire inside him to build bigger.
“At first, I was pissed. I was really trying to define myself as a company, not just two guys working out of a truck,” he said. “But now I realize—it was the best thing anyone ever said to me. Because it lit a fire under me. And with my personality, I was going to prove that comment wrong. And I have.”
As he said—it was a choice. Life is about choices.
Though Ben Haugh may never call himself a natural-born leader… he may downplay his role and claim it all “just happened.” But after seeing the clarity with which he guides others, the patience he brings to uncertainty, and the integrity he shows in solving problems the hard way— there’s no denying it.
Whether he wants to admit it or not, Benjamin Haugh is exactly the kind of leader we need more of.
