It's a Lonely Path
One Reason Why The Preparation Might Not Be For You
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2025
Writing to you from Denver, Colorado
We’ve compared the differences between college and The Preparation for over a year at this point.
The Preparation wins over college in nearly every metric - costs less than college, you gain real skills, you don’t go into debt, you don’t waste 4+ years of your life away, you move towards becoming the man you want to be in rapid time, unique opportunities and experiences come your way, you build a vast network of interesting people, and there’s no doubt that the skills you learn will allow you to make money.
It’s a no-brainer, but let me put it another way…
In just four years of time you could become a man who can heal people, fight, ride horses, fly planes, sail boats, cook a great meal, write persuasively, make good money, experience things most never experience, gain good and interesting friends, and, in terms of character, become a man worth striving to be.
Not a single 4-year “college experience” can touch that.
Of course, that’s what appeals to me, but you can fill in that paragraph with the things you find interesting.
Yet, there is one major downside of the program that might make some pull a U-turn straight back to college…
It’s Lonely
Your parents, grandparents, friends, siblings, aunts, uncles - chances are everyone was trying to move you down the college path. With full support behind you, you step out into college surrounded by your peers who are all going down similar prescribed paths.
As long as you’re getting good grades and headed towards that piece of paper at the end of the road you’re painted as a success.
Everyone is in full support.
Well, to put it bluntly, you don’t get that in The Preparation.
Friends will be confused as to what you’re doing, family will treat you like you’re some dumb kid who’s headed straight for poverty and failure, and when you tell people what you’re doing instead of college they will think that you’re just “dabbling” in learning different skills and won’t take you seriously.
I’m telling you this from experience.
Of course, I got lucky because my dad has always had my back and helped me get on this path in the first place.
Not everyone will have that.
There were a few times in the early days of beta testing The Preparation when I though, “What’s the point?” I was ready to give it all up a few times.
It’s difficult to get the indications that you’re making progress when you don’t have society and the people close to you cheering you on…in fact, they’re wondering, “What the hell is this kid doing?”
Every success and every failure is your own, which is a fact of life, but one you don’t get to learn when you’re put on a prescribed path like college.
You have to sit with your own thoughts, constantly plan to learn and do more things on your own, and add coal to your inner fire because (especially in the beginning) there is little to no one who is betting on your success.
It’s difficult, no doubt about that. But, there is nothing better than this…
But, This is a Good Thing
College may put you on a path that (used to) pretty much guarantee a job, which somehow equates to a successful life, but is life so mechanical and robotic that as long as you have a “good job” everything else somehow falls into place?
It worked for a few years, but college has never been a reflection of real life. It’s a world within a world - safe, bubble-wrapped, and deceiving…
What a successful life is needs to be redefined, and that’s what The Preparation does.
How?
Because anyone who undergoes their own preparation must act in the world itself, not in a sub-world (institution). It’s not about a job. It’s about becoming a man worth being - a man who embraces virtue, possess numerous valuable skills, adds value to the world and therefore makes money, builds relationships with good people, does interesting things, and lives a life worth living.
It’s all-encompassing. Not about a degree, not about a job, not about fitting in.
A successful life is a whole life - one in which the man himself is developed into something greater. All good things stem from this.
So, despite the lonely road you will walk - where friends, family, and strangers will criticism you and certainly look down on you for at least a short period of time, and society doesn’t cheer you on - the result of your time and effort will pay off hundredfold.
Nowadays the lonely road is an indication that you’re doing the right thing.
Plus, to be completely superficial, you do get a hero’s journey…
The story might sound something like: A young kid who had never done anything with his life ends up coming out of 4 lonely years of hard effort and ambition as a respectable, capable, and potentially financially successful man who accomplished more in 4 years than most do in 20.
4 years of college or good character, large skill set, real life experiences, large network of friends…should I keep going?
Which do you choose?
-Maxim Benjamin Smith
Sounds exactly like the road every successful entrepreneur is well familiar with.
You look like a fuck up for years and those who love you most tend to be the most discouraging.
And then one day, sometime after you’ve crested that mountain alone, they all say we knew you’d make it happen.
I’ve always had strong opinions, but during my “fuck up” years even my family had no time for it. Something changed when I returned home for thanksgiving one year - somehow it dawned on them that I’d managed to become a success - and rich.
It was like I was in bizarro world. Everyone asked me questions. They listened and took seriously my responses.
I really wasn’t any smarter. And since I don’t like outward signs of wealth I don’t know how they figured it out. But they did.
It took more than a decade of me working my ass off, never a day off, dragging myself forward and they still couldn’t see it - until they did.
If You do anything outside the box - great or small, you’ll fail if you rely on the acclaim or even approval of others. That fact is, perhaps, why we live in such an uninspired society now.
Fuck ‘em. By that I mean - wish them no harm and harbor no resentment, but totally ignore them.
As the old proverb goes, “the dogs bark, but the caravan goes on.”
If you can see a path forward to great things - even if nobody else can see it - run, don’t walk.
Fortunately, along the way you meet kindred spirits. These great people, like one you know well - Craig Ballantyne, are following their own lonely path too. You’ll find in them something more than friendship.
I haven’t seen Craig in years. But I love him and he knows I do. He gets me and roots for my success. The feeling is, of course, mutual.
Take heart Maxim.
I went the "traditional" route of college, but by my late 20's/early 30's I was experiencing the same sort of loneliness you describe, and it persisted until I was well into my 30s. I mention this just to point out that what you are going through is not abnormal, and you are getting through is earlier than most.
Self-confidence is something that can't be reached by a cheat code, and I suspect that by the time you hit 25 you will enjoy the confidence that only comes from achievement bought by your own efforts, and that will put you head and shoulders above your age peers. This is an age where young men are expected to find their own way rather than be shepherded by society, so the best you can do is strive, and with luck this will see you through to the opposing shore.