Starting from Scratch...Again

A Radical Alternative to College

Sunday, September 7th, 2025

Writing to you from Uruguay

Not one of the 16 Cycles within The Preparation are easy, but some are easier than others.

I can tell you that 4 months of sitting in a classroom for EMT school was (at least looking back on it) much smoother than learning to sail in the Falkland Islands. Especially after that first night of sea sickness and the unpleasant realization that I’d have to deal with that for the next few weeks.

But, one of the best parts of it all is how dynamic the program is. Each new cycle presents different challenges. I’m getting an even better sense of this after this first week in the Entrepreneurship Cycle.

Of course, you are always responsible for your own success but, in most environments, you can lean heavily on the more experienced people around you to show you the way. They can give you a step-by-step process to hitting certain benchmarks and get you where you need to go.

That’s not exactly the same with the Entrepreneurship Cycle.

Your success (as I’m finding out) is almost 100% on you. Now, this may seem obvious, but it’s hard to get a true sense of things until you’re face-to-face with it. There isn’t a clear path laid out for you when starting a business — you need to clear the brush out of the way and make your own.

Framing the Objective

I’m a quarter of the way through a book that has been helpful in framing my thinking during this new cycle.

You see, for someone who’s never started a business (let alone an agricultural drone business) it’s hard to understand what the objectives should be. That may sound silly — obviously the objective is to sell! But, it isn’t so obvious to someone new to this, and it’s easy to get caught up in focusing on the business name, logo, slogans, or diving head-first into the necessary legal processes. Before reading the book Ready, Fire, Aim that’s where my mind would have automatically gone.

I was thinking, “Okay, how do I set up the business first so that I can start getting costumers?” Now I know that’s the wrong way to think about it.

Instead, I should be thinking, “How do I get more sales?”

With that one simple question I now have the main objective in my mind: to make sales. All else (at least to a degree) come secondary to that. It doesn’t make sense to put most of your efforts to setting up a business if you’re not even sure if someone would want to buy your product or service.

But, there’s another important point of the book that I have to emphasize for myself.

It’s not just about making more sales as your objective, but it’s also about not being “ready” before trying to make sales. This is something I’ve had lingering in the back of my mind, but proved true through this book: you don’t have to have all the answers, a perfect product, or a perfect service before you ever try to get a customer. Not only that, but there’s no way you can have the perfect product/service or all the answers without getting out into the world and battle-testing it.

A product or service can always be improved, but the only way to know how to improve it is by testing it with real people.

I’m very eager to get the DJI T-40 (seeder/fertilizer/sprayer) drone soon so that I can finally start testing it out and try to make sales. Once I have it I’ll be able to “battle-test” the services I seek to offer to other ranchers/farmers in the area.

And, I have lots of questions like: Who would conduct soil analysis — the customer or myself? Which seeds are best to use, and when? Which types of fertilizer do certain grasses need more of? How will I resource seed/fertilizer?

Frankly, too many questions to list here, but I know that many of them will be answered in trying to make a sale.

Of course, I’m doing lots of research now to answer some questions because there’s a lot I don’t know about agriculture. For instance, we have only used seed and fertilizer on our land once since we’ve lived here. I helped out in the operation, but had no clue of how much fertilizer/seed we were using, which kinds, and why.

I have much to learn.

Speeding things up

3 months to start a business and gain one customer might seem difficult, and it probably will be, but entrepreneurs like James Altucher have said recently that it’s an optimal time period to figure out whether or not a business will succeed.

I think that’s true, but it does put the pressure on — good!

Originally, the plan was to register my business as a corporation due to Cretan tax laws which would mean I wouldn’t be taxed by both the U.S. and Uruguay. The problem is, the entire process takes 3 or 4 months. So, that’s out of the picture for now.

Instead, I’ll start the process to register as a sole proprietor this next week — a process that’ll only take a couple weeks. From that I’ll be able to set up a bank account, have a registered business, and hire employees in the future.

But, most importantly, it’ll be done quick.

I can always convert the business to an LLC or corporation later on if it sees success.

But, as Craig Ballantyne (entrepreneur) says, “Success loves speed”. So, I’m taking his advice to get the ball rolling pretty quick here.

Another Survey of the Land

The grass is looking greener as we head into spring. It’s been changing quite fast.

Because of that, I brought out the DJI Mavic 3M drone to do another survey of our land — I wanted to see if the grass is actually improving or if it just looks better.

Results from multispectral mapping of our property.

Despite the fact that the color red usually signals something bad the red areas in the image are areas of higher growth in our pastures. The yellows and greens are either bare soil, sparse grass, or overall low-quality grass.

This map specifically is an NDVI map, which is great at finding thin patches, bare soil…The only problem with this type of map is that improvements in overall biomass and nitrogen aren’t caught by this map. So it certainly has limitations.

When it comes to my business, I’ll be using the NDVI map in conjunction with the NDRE map which is better as tracking and measuring chlorophyll content (and thus nitrogen status since the two are closely linked).

Plus, the NDRE map gives you a better picture of where to add more nitrogen or overseed an area of pasture that needs it.

The two drones (Mavic 3M, T-40) plus the software will be where most of the work is done.

The Mavic 3M takes multispectral images, the software (either DJI Terra or Pix4d Fields) allows you to create a map from the images and select areas deficient in certain nutrients, then the DJI T-40 flies on the map you create to distribute seed or fertilizer.

Podcasts

Keep an eye on the Collapse Life substack because they will be releasing a podcast interview with my dad and I from this past week. In addition to that, Tyler and Brennan from Minuteman EMS (and now The JourneyMan) brought me on the Spiked Out Podcast to talk about The Preparation.

Matt Beaudreau from Apogee Strong brought me on one of his mentor calls with guys ranging from 12-50 years old in order to talk about The Preparation. It was an honor to talk to them. They are great people and they are trying to achieve many of the same goals we are after by educating young men and directing them toward their own path.

It seems out interests align quite a bit.

It was also a great opportunity to speak in front of a group of people — something that I haven’t done a lot of. Despite the fact that I was nervous and my face was bright red for the entire hour I think it went pretty well. The boys on that call had great questions, Matt had great insights and wisdom from his own life experience, and I got to spread the ideas of The Preparation to more young men!

Electives

1 hour of Spanish practice (6 out of 7 days)

It isn’t easy to dedicate an hour to learning Spanish every day, but it’ll come in handy very soon during this Entrepreneur Cycle. I’ll likely have to speak to local ranchers/farmers in Spanish. That’ll be the REAL practice.

1 hour of guitar practice (6 out of 7 days)

Practice is going well, I think I’ve got the hang of the intro to Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. Also, I started learning how to play Iris — a slightly simplified version — but it sounds nearly identical.

Worked out (5 out of 7 days)

There can be lots of sitting around in the Entrepreneur Cycle. It’s good to get up and walk or hike, but also to keep a regular workout schedule. You’ll feel better if you do.

Reading

• Finished reading Ernest Hemingway on Writing

Not realizing that this was just a compilation of Hemingway’s thoughts on writing (not on how to write) I picked it up and read it all the way through. Was it interesting to see what his thoughts were on writing? Sure, but it wasn’t exactly helpful in terms of trying to get tips on writing well.

• Finished reading Great Leads by Michael Masterson

Unlike the book on Hemingway, this book was quite helpful. One of my questions ever since I started writing has been, “How can I write even better?” This book does a great job of answering that because it gives you 6 specific leads to use when aiming to write persuasively. One of the most difficult parts of writing for me has been crafting a good title, subtitle, and the first 100 or so words — that’s basically to say that I’ve always had trouble with crafting a good “lead”, but we will see how much more I can improve after reading this book.

• Started reading Ready, Fire, Aim by Michael Masterson

Like I said, I’m only a quarter of the way through this book, but it’s already changed my thinking.

Things I Published

A post on The Preparation.com:

Skip the Debt. Build the Man.

Looking forward

As you may know, the cycle I’ll be doing after this one will by the Fighter Cycle — training Muay Thai in Thailand for over a month. Well, I just paid the Muay Thai school that I’ll be going to. So, this next week everything should be set up for me to go!

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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.