Sunday, August 9th, 2026
Writing to you from Uruguay
Let’s cut to the chase…
This past week was largely unproductive. Part of the reason was laziness, part of it was a lack of worthwhile things to do, and part of it was due to issues caused by trying to fix my screwed-up sleep schedule — I actually lost about 2 days of time from sleeping so much at the wrong times…
It didn’t turn out like how I prefer most weeks do.
The one good thing I did was complete my first official Preparation Strategy Session with someone who signed up.
We planned their next cycle of the program together, gave them a clear path to follow in order to become a wildland fire EMT, and went over issues/questions they had regarding The Preparation.
If one good thing came out of this week, I’d say it was that strategy session.
App development
An idea at 4am unintentionally led me to start the Hacker Cycle of The Preparation a couple of weeks ago.
The idea was to create an app where Uruguayan cattle ranchers could keep track off all of their data — cows, current cattle weights and weight progression, expenses, medication administration, etc. — and also have a week-by-week update on current cattle prices for estimates of the worth of their herd.
There’s a lot more to it, but that’s the basic rundown.
The base layer of the app is complete. Lots of changes will have to be made for it to be a fully finished product that I can publish to the Google and Apple app stores, but the one thing keeping everything at a standstill was a lack of our own data.
We run a cow-calf operation in Uruguay, so this app will benefit us directly. The one thing we didn’t have, and haven’t had until now, was a full rundown of our cattle related data. Specifically, we didn’t know the weight of every cow, we didn’t have them all in one easily readable list, and we didn’t have clear info on vaccinations/medication administrations until recently.
This past week we were able to get a huge portion of that data.
I was able to import it into my app for the first time and get real insight to not only our actual data but also how well the app functions when hundreds of pieces of animal data were added into it.
We should get the rest of the information this upcoming week to import 95% of the important data into the app.
From there, I’ll have to figure out what changes I need to make or what I need to remove in order to maximize the value of the product for the 40,000 or so ranchers in the country.
We’ll see how it goes.
Financial Analyst Course
I’ve drawn out my Investor Cycle of The Preparation quite a bit and haven’t given full attention to it in a while…or even a decent amount of attention to it. That’s my fault, of course. It really just comes down to how I structure the cycle now.
Going forward, I’m going to make the Investor Cycle a small part of each day.
I’m going to set up a paper trading account, do market research, and watch the effects of my trades day-to-day.
I think that’ll help me make the most progress with the skill of investing.
But, I have been putting aside some time to go through a complete financial analyst course. Is all of it useful? No, but parts of it are extremely beneficial for measure the financial position of a particular company. It is useful for investing, that’s for sure.
Things I Published
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.
Hey Maxim, hope you’re well.
We aren’t robots.. sometimes we need to recharge how ever that may express itself.
Seems you got enough done to create something; that’s what matters