Hey everyone,

Matt Smith here.

For the past few years, I've been on a journey that started with a single, terrifying question…

My son, Maxim, was 18. He'd just finished high school (home school), and he had no idea what to do next.

And frankly, neither did I.

The default path we've all been sold—go to college, get a degree, get a job—felt broken. It felt like a trap.

Rising costs, ideological indoctrination, and degrees that no longer guarantee competence or opportunity… it was clear that modern academia had failed.

And now, with the exponential rise of AI, going to college has become the single worst financial decision a young person could make today.

Think about it. By the time a freshman graduates in four years, AI will have completely disrupted the global workforce. They'll be spit out into an even more AI-dominant world in 2029, saddled with $150,000 in debt, maybe more.

They'd be completely screwed.

So, what's the alternative?

That's the question that led my son and me, along with my mentor, the legendary Doug Casey, to create "The Preparation."

It's a 4-year process, a "right of passage," that replaces classroom memorization with real-world experiences. It's designed to build virtue, values, skills, connections, and confidence in a young man or woman to navigate an increasingly unstable and unclear future.