Making the Leap

More Preppers are doing what it takes to make significant progress in their own lives

Feb 24, 2026

Tuesday, February 24th, 2026

Writing to you from Osaka, Japan

What if you could make it to the top 0.3% of people in the entire world in just 2.5 years?

No, I’m not talking about making an income of $150k+/year which, when compared to the other 8+ billion people in the world would put you around the top 0.3%. Being able to earn an amount of money that will allow you to be reasonably prosperous is a good thing, but earning money is much more easily done when you amass a series of skills, accomplishments, and experiences that, when combined, put you in the top 0.3-0.1% of people worldwide.

Many reasonably ambitious and competent men can stick to a career long enough to see $150k/year numbers, but the men who willingly wade the waters of uncertainty in order to pick up a vast array of skills and experiences will have more freedom, more opportunities, and likely have more money when all is said and done.

Those men might also go on to become some of the most interesting men in the world…

But, What’s the Blueprint for This Path?

Well, I am biased, but I have 2.5 years of proof and progress to back me up…

The path to getting into the top 0.1-0.3% of people in the world is best done by going through a 4-year alternative to college called The Preparation. The program has 16 cycles (semesters) with each cycle being 3 months long. Each cycle is centered around learning one major skill (i.e. house building, piloting, EMT, welding, entrepreneurship) but also comes with a variety of “secondary pursuits” like learning chess, how to play guitar, or scuba diving.

Each cycle builds upon the last. Skills stack. Experiences and abilities intertwine and connect in unexpected ways.

As I said, I’m now 2.5 years through this program. The other day it occurred to me that it would be interesting to input a list of all my accomplishments into ChatGPT in order to get an idea of how many people have skills/experiences similar to mine at 20 years old.

The results speak for themselves.

You can get the full in-depth breakdown by clicking HERE, but here’s the basic synopsis:

EMT +wildland fire work - 0.01%
Making $600/day doing risky work - 0.1%
Building a business (the drone business I started in Uruguay) - 0.5-1%
Published author - 0.1%
International immersion - 0.3%
Physical capability stack - 0.1%
Serious writing - 0.2-0.3%
Aviation training - 0.05%
Agricultural/animal husbandry skills - 3-5%

But the combination of all of those skills brings things to a completely different level. ChatGPT estimated that 0.1-0.3% of 18-22 year old men worldwide have similar skills and experiences.

Now, I’m not using myself as an example to toot my own horn…far from it. I’m doing it to show you what’s possible if you have the courage to make the leap — to venture down your own wildly uncertain, frequently difficult, and incredibly fulfilling path. Not only that, but you have to know this: you can accomplish much more than I have in the last two in a half years with The Preparation.

It wasn’t until just last year that I had the same blueprint of this program available to me.

So, imagine how easily you could become a competent, confident, and dangerous man — making it into the top 0.1% of people with your skillset and experiences globally — in 2-3 years.

Those Making the Leap

There’s nothing wrong with being the reasonably ambitious and competent man that spends his life pursuing a career, nothing wrong with that at all. Though, you can’t help but give honor and deep respect to the “man in the arena” that Roosevelt spoke about in his famous speech — the man who goes beyond the perceived confines of “normal life” to accomplish great things, to dare greatly.

Anyone who makes the leap to tread their own path is worthy of respect.

That is why I want to introduce you to 3 more Preppers who have just started their own Preparation. One of them is currently working on welding, another is planning to start the Builder Cycle of The Preparation, one is training Muay Thai, and the last one is doing a combination of entrepreneurship and work within the program. I wouldn’t be surprised if several of the Preppers joining the program find themselves in the top 0.1% of skilled/experienced people worldwide in the coming years.

I highly recommend you check out their Substack pages and follow along with their progress just as I will be.

Reminder to all starting The Preparation:

Once you make the decision to start down your path set up a Substack account to post weekly updates on your progress throughout The Preparation.

Not only will you be holding yourself accountable, but you will have unique opportunities come your way over time, your writing will improve, and we will push more people to your page — supporters that will wish to see you succeed.

-Maxim Benjamin Smith