Sunday, August 3rd, 2026
Writing to you from Uruguay
Not every week in The Preparation is exciting. I’m 157 weeks into it — just passed the 3-year threshold 2 days ago — and most of it has been steady “uneventful” progress.
Some weeks are slower than others, some are intense, some are exciting.
This past week was one of the slow ones.
I got sick, was trying to fix my sleep schedule, and had a little less on my plate. Still, I think it was a good week.
Writing
Although I’m not particularly good at it, I’ve realized the sheer value of writing over the course of the past few years. It’s shown up when writing these weekly updates, when trying to communicate effectively with people, and when I was doing marketing for my drone seeding business that I started for the Entrepreneur Cycle.
Writing frequently changes the way you view the world.
It also amplifies your effectiveness within it.
If you can draft an intelligible written plan, persuade people to adopt an idea or buy a product, or even just view the world through the eyes of a writer — the gain you get from that cannot be measured.
It’s amazing, but it takes decades to hone the craft, and I’ve hardly scratched the surface.
But, with the creation of The Preparation Forum there was another obvious gap to fill which required writing: one-on-one sessions between myself and a person in The Preparation to help them plan out a solid cycle or potentially several different cycles of the program. Several people have come to me already asking for “guidance” sessions for their son’s. So, after creating the community forum, it was obvious that this was the next step to provide a valuable service to those on a difficult individual path.
I spent a fair portion of the past week writing emails to introduce The Preparation Strategy Sessions in a way that was interesting and engaging but also conveyed the full value that some of those in The Preparation can gain from the sessions.
My interest in copywriting (studying the greats like Halbert, Masterson, and Carlton) has been hugely helpful at different points in the past. This was another point where it mattered.
Still, continuously learning and relearning how to craft an email, understand who you’re writing to, and editing is tough to do.
Writing these emails gave me another run to practice.
Cattle App
I made a few more small changes to my Uruguay-specific cattle app that tracks your herd, weights, expenses, vaccinations/medications, sales, and the national cattle prices.
At this point, the app is basically done.
The only thing missing is the data which, due to weather, we were not able to weigh all of our own cattle last week. The plan is to weigh all 300 or so cattle this week. We need to do it anyway to get all their up-to-date weights, but it’ll also give me the info I need to populate the app with our data.
If the timing works out this week, I’ll record the cattle weights myself with the app so that I can see how well the workflow process is for actually imputing new cattle data into the app.
The goal is to make the workflow process as smooth as butter.
If it is, there’ll be no reason for ranchers not to use it.
Anyway…
Once that’s done, there’ll be about 300 head of cattle registered in the app along with their specific weights, ID numbers, and any vaccinations/medications they’ve recently received.
I’m excited to see it.
That'll be the last step before determining what needs to be changed, finding bugs to fix, and then getting the app in the Apple and Google app stores.
Activities
Weightlifting (5 out of 7 days)
Going very well. Feeling strong and energized.
Chess practice (6 out of 7 days)
Also going very well. I’ve made a fair amount of progress recently. The big challenge is finding the right time to play — times of day when I’m most alert and awake but also motivated to play. Getting the timing on that right largely determines how well I’ll play.
Reading
Finished reading The Charisma Myth by Olivia Cabane
This was a pretty good book. I think anyone would benefit from reading it. Funnily enough, parts of the book reminded me of a chapter I wrote in The Preparation book called “Managing Your Mind”. Almost all of the methods to overcome social anxiety that I wrote about in that chapter were nearly identical to what Olivia Cabane described in this book.
Are these updates informative? Are they useful? Entertaining?
Leave a comment below if you’ve got any suggestions or questions for me.
And don’t forget to send this to someone who might benefit.
I’ll see you next week.
-Maxim Benjamin Smith
I am acting as a guinea pig for a program which is meant to prepare young men for the future. This program is designed to be a replacement for the only three routes advertised to young men today - go to college, the military, or a dead-end job.
All of these typical routes of life are designed to shape us into cogs for a wheel that doesn’t serve us. Wasted time, debt, lack of skills, and a soul crushing job define many who follow the traditional route.
This program, which we can call “The Preparation”, is meant to guide young men on a path where they properly utilize their time to gain skills, build relationships, and reach a state of being truly educated. The Preparation is meant to set young men up for success.
What appeals to me about The Preparation is the idea of the type of man I could be. The path to becoming a skilled, dangerous, and competent man is much more clear now. I’ve always been impressed by characters like The Count of Monte Cristo, men who accumulated knowledge and skills over a long period of time and eventually became incredibly capable men.
Young men today do not have a guiding light. We have few mentors and no one to emulate. We have been told that there are only a few paths to success in this world. For intelligent and ambitious people - college is sold to us as the one true path. And yet that path seems completely uncertain today.
We desperately need something real to grab onto. I think this is it.
I’m putting the ideas into action. Will it work? I can’t be sure, but I’m doing my best. I’m more than 60 weeks into the program at this point. So far, so good.
You can follow me along as I follow the program. Each week, I summarize all that I did.
My objective in sharing this is threefold:
Documenting my progress holds me accountable.
I hope these updates will show other young men that there is another path we can take.
For the parents who stumble upon this log, I want to prove to you that telling your children that the conventional path - college, debt, and a job is not the foolproof path you think it is.