Nose to the Grindstone

A Radical Alternative to College

Sunday, August 31st, 2025

Writing to you from Uruguay

Well, it turns out that you can’t publish a book into the world and expect smooth sailing from there. Who would have known, the two years of work put into publishing a book don’t magically transport you to the desired goal — watching peoples’ lives change before your eyes + the creation of unique opportunities — you actually have to get people to read the book in the first place!

Putting jokes aside, it’s no small task (as I’m finding out) to market a book to people (even when that book will change their life).

But, don’t get me wrong — I’m not complaining.

All of the work that we are putting into it is getting the book into the hands of people who need it. Plus, I’m learning a lot from the entire process. Not just the process of marketing something, but also the process of writing, editing, and distributing a book.

Audiobook

5 and a half days of this past week have gone into one thing and one thing only: creating The Preparation audiobook. From morning until late at night, my dad and I were recording (and spending lots of time editing — the majority actually) the audiobook. At least, that’s what we were doing during the times we weren’t being interviewed on a podcast.

By the way, you should check out the podcast my dad (Matt Smith) and I did with Parallel Mike: HERE

The recording is a combination of my dad’s voice and mine. We have very different voices, so we’ll see how well they work together once it’s released.

By the way, there’s no telling for certain when the audiobook version is coming out. It’s in the review process, but I’d expect it to come out within the next couple days.

Things I’ve Been Reading

• Finished reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

• Started reading Great Leads: The Six Easiest Ways to Start Any Sales Message by Masterson and Forde

Looking Forward

Amazing isn’t it?

It’s basically already September. Things are starting to get a bit warmer in the southern hemisphere as we head toward spring. Seems like just yesterday that it was January and I was preparing to leave for my sailing trip — the Competent Crew Course in the Falkland Islands.

Time goes by so fast. We have none to waste.

Anyway, tomorrow I start my Entrepreneur Cycle of The Preparation. The plan is to extend this Cycle through to the end of the year — a little longer than a Cycle is meant to be, but it makes sense to continue it for one extra month since I’m down in Uruguay.

And, this will be a more difficult Cycle. Unlike the majority of things I’ve done thus far (EMT school, wildland fire, flight training, sailing…) the process and outcome of all of this Cycle is 100% on me. Now, that’s NOT to say that I didn’t put effort into the things I’ve done thus far — I’ve put a ton of effort into it all. What I mean by that is that there will be no formal process or preexisting structure to help me. I won’t have much to lean on except for some guidance in entrepreneurship from my father (which I am more than lucky to have).

On top of that, this will be the first Cycle where I follow the format in The Preparation book. Aside from the business I’m starting (which is the Anchor activity) I will also be reading all the required books and taking all the suggested academic courses from the book.

The Cycles are a relatively new development (even for me) that we have come up with. For the majority of the past two years I didn’t have a formal structure to follow — so I’m lucky to have the book as well!

It all starts tomorrow.

I’m excited to take this Cycle and run with it.

Oh, and let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Louis L’Amour:

“There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning.”

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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

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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 three fold:

1. Documenting my progress holds me accountable.

2. I hope these updates will show other young men that there is another path we can take.

3. 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.