The Preparation

How to Become Competent, Confident, and Dangerous

De: Doug Casey, Matt Smith, Maxim Smith

Narrado por: Matt Smith, Maxim Smith

Skip the debt. Build the man. What if you could trade four stagnant years in lecture halls for four years of adventure—emerging as a debt free EMT, pilot, welder, web/app builder, rancher, and entrepreneur all in one? The Preparation is the field manual for young men (and the parents who love them) who know the old college formula is broken and want a roadmap that actually forges competence, confidence, and real world value.

Written by three generations—legendary investor and bestselling author Doug Casey, entrepreneur Matt Smith, and twenty year old “beta tester” Maxim Smith—this book distills their hard won wisdom into a four year, 16 cycle program you can start tomorrow.

• 16 themed cycles—Medic, Cowboy, Pilot, Fighter, Hacker, Maker, and more—each built around a hands on “Anchor Course” that forces you to learn by doing, not by cramming.
• Earn while you learn design shows you exactly how to pay your way through each cycle and graduate debt free.
• Cost: roughly one year of tuition – yet delivers four years of marketable skills, global travel, and a network of doers, not talkers.
• Foundational philosophy rooted in Stoicism and Renaissance thinking so you don’t just master tasks—you master yourself.
• Bulletproof curriculum: step by step schedules, book lists, online courses, and locations for every skill so you’re never guessing what to do next.
• Battletested results—Maxim used the program to rack up EMT shifts on Oregon wildfires, fly solo over the Rockies, ranch in Uruguay, and sail the Strait of Magellan before he turned twenty.

The Problem: College now averages $140,000+ and often delivers little more than ideology, debt, and obsolete credentials. The Preparation: compresses that money and time into a crucible that turns raw potential into a modern-day Renaissance Man.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2025 Doug Casey, Matt Smith, Maxim Smith (P)2025 Doug Casey, Matt Smith, Maxim Smith

Incredibly Wise and Interesting Suggestions

I love the content, but the performance is disappointing. It's very obvious that they used an AI reader and trained it on recordings with awful audio quality.

Excellent plan for young men after highschool

The actual content of the book is fantastic. My only critique is that it sounds like the author used an AI voice model of his own voice to read the book. It sounds unnatural and robotic. I got past it as the content was phenomenal, but would have preferred if the author actually read the book (or had someone else read it).

Fascinating concept, but advice is a mixed bag

First off, the audio book performance is quite bad. For several of the chapters, it seems like they used a mediocre AI reader with poor cadence and frequent mispronunciation. And the mic quality leaves something to be desired. That said, it’s intelligible, at least.

Second, the core idea they’re espousing (alternative to college focused on building competence, confidence, and character) is fascinating. Looking back at my own college experience at an Ivy League, the Preparation definitely comes out ahead in developing capable young men.

Third, the practical advice itself is a mixed bag. Some chapters, like the one on “how to find a patron” are very good. But in others, the authors’ fringe ideological views come through too strong.

For example, they take up a large section of the chapter on wealth talking about how great the gold standard was, and why a significant portion of your investments should be in gold. Also, the underlying morality of the book seems like Ayn-Rand-meets-stoicism. I rolled my eyes at several points.

For these reasons and others, I won’t recommend this book to my sons, though I could see myself recommending something similar to them.

Incredibly Off-Putting Reader

The content is fantastic, but it’s almost not worth the listen because the narrator is so monotonous and dry, and he has no regard for punctuation.

the resources pages stud out to me the most

I like everything except for the AI voice. would have rather had a random reader

AI reader

The content is good but the Robot monotonous reader is absolutely intolerable and virtually unlistenable

interesting program

heart about this on art of manliness and it sounder interesting. a little old for the program, but am going to attempt a couple of the cycles

I wish I had this book 30 years ago!

I had high expectations for this book considering the authors, and those expectations were far exceeded. This is a fantastic roadmap not only for success, but for a rich, fulfilling life. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to better themselves, no matter how old they may be.

Beautiful Idea, Pitiful Execution

Young men today need a book like this. I just don't think they need THIS book.

For all the authors rant and rave about liberals "indoctrinating" young minds in college, they do a pretty hefty amount of indoctrinating themselves, just with right wing ideology. I'm a pretty middle of the road moderate, maybe even right-leaning, and I was taken aback.

The authors spend half the time talking about what it means to be a good, well-rounded man as they do lambasting liberals and their politics and economics and spouting off personal opinions that have no place in a book like this. Warning kids about the homosexuals and desperate people in the acting professions? Going on and on about polo being the reason you want to get rich? Fawning over JD Vance and Peter Thiel? Give me a break.

I'm not even saying I disagree with everything they say, but this isn't the platform for it. Doug Casey in particular sounds less like the wise mentor and more like the drunk uncle. You're supposed to be giving guidelines for a good life outside of college to young men--not just the conservative ones.

Having said that, the basic impetus, if you will, behind this book is sound. College is truly not for everyone. Decide what YOU want out of life. Spend more time DOING things to see what you truly like and don't like. Become the man you want to be. Become multifaceted and multitalented.

The concept of this book is incredible, and if you can find it for free, you should take some notes. But then synthesize it into a framework that works for YOU. Learn to be an EMT, absolutely. Learn to sail a ship or fly a plane or ride a horse, 1000%. Absolutely do learn how to defend yourself and manage your money.

I just would not give these guys any money.