About The Preparation

For most young men today, the path seems set: go to college, join the military, or settle for a dead-end job. College sits at the top of that list—marketed as the gateway to success. But the reality is different. For many, it’s four uninspired years that end with little more than debt and uncertainty.

The Preparation was born from a different question: what would truly prepare a young man for life?

The answer became a four-year framework built on skills, challenges, and adventure. Instead of lectures and student loans, imagine becoming an EMT and fighting wildfires, learning to fly planes, apprenticing with horsemen and farmers, sailing through dangerous waters, studying history and philosophy, launching businesses, and building a network of valuable people around the world.

This isn’t theory—it’s already being lived. Maxim Smith became the first “beta tester” of the program at seventeen. In just two years, he’s stacked experiences most never touch in a lifetime. His father, Matthew Smith, helped shape the program, alongside Doug Casey—the legendary investor, adventurer, and original International Man whose life of exploration and ideas inspired its creation.

Together, their work has forged The Preparation: a path that transforms young men into competent, confident, and dangerous men—in the best sense of the word. Men capable of thinking and acting for themselves, ready to meet life head-on.


Contact Us

You can reach out to Maxim and Matthew Smith HERE: info@thepreparation.com

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A radical alternative to college, The Preparation shows exactly what a young man should do instead to become competent, confident, and dangerous.

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I'm the guy that does the podcast with Doug Casey. In a past life - Founder of Royalty Exchange, a jobs portal in the late 1990’s, an ad agency, a marketing analytics business, and several niche publishing companies. I live on a ranch in Uruguay.