Add Coal to the Flames

How to Keep Things Moving in The Preparation

Tuesday, April 15th, 2025

Writing to you from Denver, Colorado

The glamorous parts of The Preparation are much more fun to talk about - learning new skills, having unique experiences, meeting interesting people, and being able to get more done in 1 year than most do in 5…

But, the question always comes back to, “How do I fund all of this?”

Every course costs money, traveling costs money, and the regular living expenses we all have to deal with can add up pretty fast if you aren’t careful.

Everything costs money and you need to have some for the program.

Getting money to fund your own preparation is a big topic and the question of how to do is has come up quite a bit for us. We have spent over a year thinking about what any young man (with funding from parents or none at all) can do to financially manage themselves during the 4 years of The Preparation.

We go into detail about this in the upcoming book, but for now I want to give you a brief overview of the primary ideas around this.

Cost of Living

Food, gas, and other essentials…along with housing, are all going to be some of your biggest cumulative expenses. They are for everyone.

As a young man - maybe you have some money, maybe you don’t - why should you fritter away the money you have on basic living expenses (primarily housing) and potentially limit yourself in terms of location because you need to get a job to support yourself?

The answer is: you shouldn’t.

You should stay with your parents, other family members, or couch serf in order to preserve what you have and not trap yourself on a treadmill. No need to watch your bank account drain before your eyes.

But, don’t forget…you’re also doing this to improve your character.

So, don’t be a leach - don’t take and not give back. If you want people to want you to stick around (the people giving you a place to sleep and probably food to eat) you should be of value to them. Help them with house projects, keep things clean, don’t take over their space.

You want your presence to be a net positive.

Work

There are only two times in The Preparation where it’s okay to limit yourself to a certain location: To learn a skill and to work for a limited period of time.

Making sure you don’t limit yourself in terms of location is crucial.

Of course, this will be more difficult for some who have less funding on the outset of their preparation. It will be up to them to work to make money where they are and then be resourceful enough to get out into the world to find new skills to learn and work opportunities.

I can’t emphasize this enough: whether you’re starting with $10 million or with zero it all comes down to how ambitious and resourceful you are in finding skills to learn, lowering expenses, and working to make money.

The Preparation is for everyone.

But, no matter what, if you have money or you don’t you need to work occasionally throughout the program in order to bring new funding in for yourself.

The program is broken up into four 3-month cycles for the year.

Each cycle has a new focus - learning a new skill over 3 months or taking that time to work.

If you need funding more than anything your main focus will be to work. The best case scenario is to learn a new skill and work at the same time, but you have to remember that the time you spend working must be limited.

Bringing money in is good, but don’t trap yourself somewhere just because you’re seeing the number in your bank account go up unless absolutely necessary.

“The three most harmful additions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.”

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Remember, you’re looking to grow, learn, and get things done…Not stagnate in a job.

Freak Opportunities

By no means should you count on this, but if you do good work and make consistent progress they will come your way…

As more and more people see that you are a well-meaning and ambitious young man who consistently brings progress to the table, people will come to offer you unique opportunities.

It’s happened to me.

After becoming an EMT and aiming to show consistent progress, Tyler Olson, who’s one of the founders of Minuteman EMS (the wildland EMS company I work for) brought me to another level by offering me a job. He heard about what I was doing and wanted to help me.

It came out of the blue. Completely unexpected.

If it weren’t for him, I would never have worked on wildfires, probably wouldn’t have used my EMT certification, likely would have made less money, not met interesting people on fires, and I would have learned fewer skills.

Not to mention that working on fires gave me better social skills and probably improved my character, which also wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for Tyler’s desire to help me out.

Sometimes the work opportunities you get will bring you more than enough money as a young man to fund yourself.

Do good work, plant your flag, and they will come.

Does this clear things up in terms of funding the program for yourself?

Let me know.

-Maxim Benjamin Smith