The Preparation

Today is the day!

We’ve been talking about it for ages and the day has finally arrived. The book that Doug Casey, my son Maxim, and I wrote is finally published and ready for release.

We recognize that most of our readers are not college age. However, many of you have children or grandchildren or nephews or other young men in your life who need a path to success in this incredibly uncertain future. We hope that you'll share it with them.

This isn't a cheap book. The hardcover version is in full color and costs $99.99. As best as I could, I wanted to make it beautiful. I wanted to make it so that when one held it, they knew that this book was unlike any other book they'd held before. Because it is.

There are cheaper versions. There's a paperback version in black and white for $29.99. And there's an ebook version as well - that’s even cheaper. And I expect an audio will follow.

If you're ready to buy it, go ahead and [click this link]. If you'd like to hear more, stick around.

Why We Wrote This Book

Doug Casey had been asking me to write a book about becoming a renaissance man, for more than a decade. I had no interest, frankly, in writing a book of any kind for any reason. But Doug wouldn’t let it go. Every year or two, Doug would bring it up again and say, "Yeah, it really should be done. We really need to do this." I still wasn't interested.

That changed in 2023 when I realized my son had a problem. He was about to turn 18, and the truth is, he had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. Just like me, and most young men at that age.

Now, this was the COVID era. You have to remember, the world was completely turned upside down, and young men and women were caught in the crossfire—all of which made the situation more uncertain from Maxim's perspective.

So here Maxim was, nearly 18 years old, facing down the future—a deeply uncertain future. I could see it in his eyes. I could feel it in his body. I knew he felt lost, and I thought of Doug's book. Maybe we can figure it out? Maybe we can come up with a plan? A plan that would solve Maxim's problem.

At that stage, Maxim really hadn't done much. He was an 18-year-old kid, homeschooled in the last several years. But the truth is he had no accomplishments to speak of—not in sports or work or hobbies or anything. What Maxim did have is he was a good kid, and he was extraordinarily coachable.

When we started writing it wasn’t clear how AI would make things MUCH worse for college graduates. Today that picture is clear and dire so we structured the program to “Future Proof” readers from the coming changes.

What Doug envisioned with the book was something so bold and adventurous, I knew that if Maxim followed the program, it would fundamentally shape who he was. Given the low point Maxim was at this time, I wasn't sure it would take. So our goal was to make something that would work for him. If it could work for him, then I was confident it could work for others.

So I told Doug, "Let's do it. Let's write this book. Maxim needs it. And not only does Maxim need it, a lot of young men need it." And that began the long process of putting this book together.

The Alternative to College

This book is a manual for what to do instead of squandering four critical years and a small fortune getting an indoctrination rather than an education at college. This is a program that outlines exactly where to go and exactly what to do instead.

This book, fresh off the press, has been tested
in the field for two years.

We were fortunate because while we were writing the book, Maxim was busy executing The Preparation in the real world. I could spend 2,000 words describing all that he's done during that period. It’s quite extraordinary and you can read about it on his blog. But, let me just say this as a father: Maxim, who started this as a boy, somewhere along the line, became a man. If you’re a parent, perhaps you know how amazing that is to witness.

Because of his real-world efforts, we had plenty of opportunities to see what works and what doesn't work—to learn what additional tools he needed to make good decisions and how one could avoid the many potential pitfalls.

College vs. The Preparation

Much of college is like a luxury summer camp. It doesn't teach good habits. It institutionalizes our young with its part-time school work while they spend the rest of the precious time roaming around in pajamas, focusing on social life, and partying. Not to say partying is bad or social life isn't important. It is. But all that can be achieved without college, as the book clearly illustrates.

The book, on the other hand, teaches good habits. And it avoids the shock therapy that college students often experience when, saddled with debt, they encounter the real world for the first time: "40 hours a week? I have to sit here?"

The Preparation prepares a man for an independent future. It shows you how to get things done. It teaches you to live your life with a productive sense of urgency. A prepper, as I call them, looks like a man on a mission, a man who's going places. It shows you how to tap into the virtually unlimited energy that a young man has access to—and channels it. We show you how to use it constructively to make you stronger, smarter, and legitimately wise well beyond your years.

And in doing so, you'll be well prepared for an uncertain future. In the end, you'll be so valuable, you'll have no trouble finding a job. Although, quite frankly, we suspect most of the young men who follow The Preparation will end up being entrepreneurs. They'll understand they are worth much more than an employer is willing to pay them, and they'll have the know-how to get it.

They will understand things that most college students might never discover: personal freedom, real independence, and a deep sense of who they really are. For men like this, the idea of selling their life for a paycheck will be far less appealing.

There are two main parts of this book.

The first part is philosophical. Here, we plant seeds in the fertile ground of a young mind so that they might grow and blossom. These seeds are all about how the world works, how you can be successful in that world, how to conduct yourself, and how to face challenges and setbacks and new opportunities. The prepper will learn to manage and, ultimately, master themselves.

They'll develop their own personal code. In general, Doug and I don't like rules. But a personal code is different. It's a set of rules created by you and for you, exclusively. These rules provide the guide rails for becoming the man we want to be.

We also explain things no one ever tells you, like how the world really works, how men become trapped in lives they never wanted, and how success is actually achieved.

The second half of the book is about doing. We outline 16 cycles. A cycle is three months long. So essentially, four cycles a year, for four years, you get 16 cycles—the same amount of time it takes to acquire a degree from a four-year college.

In each cycle, we tell you exactly where to go and what to do. Cycles are outlined in detail with an anchor activity—the main adventurous skill-building thing that you do, which more often than not provides skills of real economic value. It also includes academic studies, courses to take, books to read, things to do, and how to process all that learning through reflection and writing.

In one cycle, for instance, we instruct the Prepper to go to Thailand and study Muay Thai. We don't just say go to Thailand. We give them THE specific place to go.

Beyond the obvious ability to defend yourself and the adventure of international travel with a purpose, there's much to be learned from the experience. But this cycle isn't simply an international trip. There are also reading assignments, specific books we'd like them to read, and courses for them to take. In general, these books and courses are relevant to the experiences that they'll have during that cycle. And of course, there's space for the prepper to do some elective activities—things they're curious about. Curiosity is always encouraged. We present them with lots of options. We list them all out. But of course, they can go well beyond these options, and we encourage it.

The key difference between this and a college education is not all the adventure—and there is a lot of adventure that can be had in The Preparation. The key to it is this: in order to be truly educated, knowing abstract concepts is not enough. You must develop a latticework of understanding about the world- a place in your mental map to tie all the facts you learn and things you experience together. This is done by combining experience and adventure along with study of the academic disciplines (which can be done for nearly free from anywhere with an internet connection) combined with reading both fiction and nonfiction and a practice of structured reflection.

The what and how is all laid out in The Preparation.

If you bring all these things—adventure, experience, academic study, and reflection—together at the right time, the student doesn't have to memorize facts. They begin to create that internal latticework and an understanding of the world. The more they learn and the more they do, the more the mental lattice blooms. And the more the man becomes truly competent, confident, and dangerous.

While colleges focus on abstract, memorized "facts," The Preparation feeds and waters the ever-expanding latticework of true understanding.

If you were to follow all 16 cycles in The Preparation, by the time your peers are graduating from college, they may not even recognize you. You'll know how to fly a plane. You'll know how to save a life as an EMT. You'll be able to sail in the open ocean. You'll know how to fight and win, to build a house, and to build digital things too—websites and apps. You'll run cattle on a ranch and survive in the wild. You'll know how to start and run your own business. And you'll easily know more about economics and finance than your buddies that graduate with a finance degree.

You'll be well-read across multiple disciplines. You'll be able to quote from books most people haven't heard of. In short, you'll be a man who can do things, who can shape the world around him. A man who can be trusted because his character is sound. A man who's developed real skills in the real world and knows how to put them to work.

You'll be a man who is truly valuable. And a man who is not dependent on another for his success. You'll learn how to be an entrepreneur, whether you choose to or not. You'll know how to become wealthy because you'll understand how to save and grow wealth.

A world of options you can’t currently imagine will be available to you. What you do with all these skills, experience, and wisdom is up to you.

The fundamental question that will be answered in this book is not what you're going to do in terms of a job or income for the rest of your life. The fundamental question this book demands of its reader is "What kind of man do you want to be?" And through the cycles— to become that man.

If you know a young man who will benefit from this book order it for them today. Get the beautiful hardback version. We do make a little more on it, but the important thing is it will have a different impact on the young man who holds it.

[click this link] to go to Amazon and order yours today.

With Gratitude,

Matt

P.S. Doug, Maxim, and I want to push this book into the world. If you’ve got an audience that would appreciate these ideas, we’d love for you to share it with them. We’re also happy to appear on podcasts to discuss. Email us at pr@thepreparation.com.