Shaun Newman Podcast - #734 - Maxim Benjamin Smith

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Maxim is pioneering a unique educational initiative named "The Preparation," conceived by Doug Casey in collaboration with his father. This program aims to equip young men with the tools necessary for future success. After a year in the program, he shares insights on his journey, which includes becoming an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), receiving Wildland Fire training, enhancing his strategic thinking through chess, and embarking on the challenge of mastering a new language. Cornerstone Forum ‘25https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/ Clothing Link:⁠⁠⁠https://snp-8.creator-spring.com/listing/the-mashup-collection⁠⁠ Text Shaun 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Silver Gold Bull Links: Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text Grahame: [phone]

This is Chris Sims. This is Tom Romago. This is Chuck Pradnik. This is Alex Kraner. This is Daniel Smith. And welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday.

How's everybody doing today? Hey, hold the phone. Tonight, tonight. Sask Election live stream starting at 6 p.m. Buckle in, folks. We got a great lineup for you. I'm going to get to that in one second, okay? We're going to do a new, new week.

Sean's feeling pretty good. It's Monday. Spock Election live stream. Before we get to that, let's talk a little precious metals. Shall we? Precious metals can be thought of as the ultimate insurance policy against economic uncertainty and government incompetence, with deficit spending and fiscal irresponsibility,

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Now, let's talk Saskatch election. Before I go any further, SASC election live stream tonight, okay? This is going to be a lot of fun. Can I just, like, I'm excited about it. I can't even get through all the ad reads. Okay, it's starting at 6 p.m. We're going to be on Rumble, X, YouTube, Facebook, multiple streams, multiple ways to find us. We're going to start at 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

We're going to probably go till 10 p.m. is my guess. I don't know what else you got it going on a Monday night, but this is going to be a ton of fun. Here's the lineup, okay? In no particular order. It's looking like John Gornley, Jerry Ritz, Ken Rutherford, Gage Hobrich, which, if you don't know him, He's another one of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Lee Harding, who's been a guest on the podcast, Angela Schmidt, Wayne Peters, Jamie Sinclair, Nadine Ness, Lee's Merle, Quick Dick, McDick, Brad Wall coming up sometime after 9 o'clock, and Lee's Merle.

That's the lineup for tonight. I tell you what, I can't think of a better place to be than on the SASC election live stream. It should be a ton of fun. I think it's going to be a ton of fun. We'll see what the conversation looks like. Two's is obviously going to be in studio again, sitting here and look forward to hopefully having some fun tonight. I think we're going to have some fun.

So we hope we'll have you in the live stream. Last time we got up to 7,800 people watching consecutively live. At the end of it all, we had 34,000 plus. I'm hoping we break that. That was a cool number to see. I'm hoping we're over that tonight. And I hope you guys will tune in and join us. Cal Rock, your trusted partner in surplus oil field equipment.

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Stop in today, see Carly and team over Windsor Plywood here in Lloydminster. Cornerstone Forum, 2025. Yeah, we're heading to Calgary, Alberta, at the Winsport. May 10th, mark it on your calendar. Okay? Here is the newest edition, Kaylin Ford. She was just on the podcast, not that long. ago and a hymn and haunt about it and we just locked it up so tom luongo alex craner chuck

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What else do I got for you? The Christmas Party, SMP, Christmas, Christmas, November 29th, dueling pianos in Lloydminster. We got four tables left. If that is of interest to you, shoot me a text. All right. Let's get on to that tale of the tape. He's a guinea pig for a program called The Preparation, which is meant to prepare young men for the future. I'm talking about Maxim Benjamin Smith. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Maxim Benjamin Smith. So, So sir, thanks for hopping on.

Oh, thank you for having me, Sean. I really do appreciate it. I was saying to you before we got started, you've been conversation among myself and my three older brothers. Just a little bit in passing. It came up a while back and that's an interesting idea. And then fast forward to today, you know, I finally reached out and decided to see if I couldn't get you on. But for most of the listeners, I'm going to say most of the listeners have never heard of you. Probably have no idea what you've been doing.

So let's just rewind the clock. Who is Maxim and tell us a little bit about yourself and then we'll get into what you've been up to. Yeah, for sure. So I'm 19 and I think I'm probably the first 19 year old you've had in your podcast. But the reason why I am on here is because of what I've been doing the past over a year now. I've been the guinea pig, the beta tester for the preparation, or the preparation, which is, a program designed by my father and Doug Casey, which is meant to set aside the basic main three general paths that people take today, which is college, the military, or going straight into a dead end job just right after high school. It's meant to set all that aside and instead pursue skills, experiences, and meeting lots of people along the way. And so within the past year, I've been trying to garner as many skills as possible.

And I've done a pretty good job of doing so within the past year with a lot of guidance from both my dad and Doug Casey. I mean, just to list a few things, I became a certified EMT, became a type 2 wildland firefighter. I've read dozens of books on economics, philosophy, sales, marketing, and personal development. I worked on this ranch, which is my family's cattle ranch. I've learned to drive tractors, shoe horses, fixed fences, treat and inspect cattle. I also went to a rope rescue course in South Dakota for a week and went to a Wrangler School in Wyoming for a week. And that's just to name a few things, but yeah, trying to learn as many skills as I can and use the time I have like four years. Let's say, just replacing the four years that you typically spend in college, using that time where you don't have much responsibility.

You're young and you have energy and trying to gain as many skills as possible within that time. That's the main aspect of the preparation program. Now, if I can rewind it just a touch before that, Benjamin, Benjamin, and see, now I'm going to do this. I wanted to call them folks maximum. Then I'm going to call them Benjamin. I'm going to, this is going to be my morning. Maxim, I just want to rewind it just a touch. You said 19 is probably the youngest. And I'm like, man, I got to think about that. I've had some young guys on. But 19, you might be right. You might be the youngest guy to have hopped on this side. But I would say you're close because I've had some some different kids early on in the in the start of this

podcast hockey players that would have been right around your age regardless okay yeah where where where you mentioned your family farm is that in uruguay yes sir correct so did you grow up in uruguay then I did not we lived in Denver Colorado for a while and then in 2020 October of 2021, we moved down here. And for the past three years, almost four years, I've been going back and forth between Denver. Yeah. So as you're getting close, you went to, I'm just trying to align the tea leaves on my side.

If I can just see the picture, you know, or the puzzle pieces. Did you graduate from high school then, like public school or were you homeschooled? How did that factor in? I was going to high school. I started my freshman year in 2020 and I started it online. It was so bad, just to give you an example of how bad it was, my teacher started talking about her favorite politicians, my math teacher, her favorite politicians to introduce the class for the day. That's what she was talking about. It was so bad that we decided to start homeschooling, because of things like that. And it was clear that when I was able to do homeschooling,

I was able to get all my work done by noon instead of getting it done by three in school. So I've been homeschooled since then. Okay. Well, that's, I would think, on this side of things, you know, that's a pretty, I don't want to say common story, but certainly it is, it's not unusual anymore, especially in 2020 when things went off the rails. I think a lot of people who were in the public system started to switch over to homeschooling.

You're being schooled from home anyways for most people, right, virtually. So, okay, I'm just trying to frame it. At what point does this preparation course, this idea, start to come to be where you start like, well, maybe I could do this. Like, are you about to graduate and you're like, well, what the heck of my, going to do or walk me through just I'm really curious on you know how this comes to be so Doug Casey was kind of developing this idea slowly himself over time and he was just thinking about writing a a book for what he thought young men could do nowadays to gain as much experience as possible

do as many interesting things as possible I mean if anyone were to talk about that I'd listen to Doug about that. I mean, he is the the international man. So he's the go-to guy for something like that. Well, the great thing is for listeners, Doug's coming back on in November. And this will be an interesting follow-up to this because I find this very fascinating, right? Like, young men in particular are looking for different ways to become skilled, to become dangerous, to become competent men, right? Like they want, I want that. You know, I sit here as a, a with three kids happily married at 38 and I go all those things I'm trying to put into life. So to have that target set at a very young age, I think is admirable.

Yeah. And I'm excited to hear what Doug has to say about all of it when he goes back on your show. But yeah, he was developing kind of this idea slowly over time. And he introduced it to my dad. And the first thing I remember my dad telling me about was this list of, games, activities, and occupations that were basic but very important skills that Doug thought a man should develop. So for games, it was poker, chess, go and bridge. For activities, it was things like learning a second language or scuba diving. Polo was probably on there as well. but things like that and then occupations my dad added EMT on their trades marketing sales writing

things like that so my dad gave me this this list from Doug when I was a month away from or maybe less than a month away from turning 18 and that's really where it started because I kind started to look at this and I was talking to my dad and we were thinking okay what should I choose out of these games activities and occupations to focus on and that's when my dad persuaded me to find an EMT school near me because at that point I was actually living with my mom in Boise Idaho but I found in that EMT school 30 minutes away from me I found a Brazilian jiu jihitsu gym which martial arts was an activity on there as well, um,

started learning Spanish and chess as well. Um, and that's really where it started going to EMT school and starting those activities and games from Doug's list. Interesting. Why, why like maybe, um, as you sit here now, right? How many, how many like, when did you start this exactly?

Uh, then how far away are we now? How many weeks in? This is going to be week 63 once the week is over. So I basically count it as I started in on August 1st. Okay. So a little over a year, essentially you're into this. You know, like if you were to try and rewind the clock to Maxim day one to now and you talk about, you know, Spanish, learning Spanish. Spanish, playing chess, jujitsu. Some of those I'm like, I completely understand. And at the same time, I'm like, I would love to hear the conversation between Maxim now and Maxim Day 1, you know, because I'm sure you were staring at some of those going like, why,

why chess? Why does it matter? Why does it matter that I play that game in particular? No, for sure. I mean, when I first saw that list, I looked at the game section and I laughed because it's like, what value do games bring, understanding games bring? So if I were to rewind the clock and talk to myself back then, I would have said that the reason for learning something like chess or Spanish, I mean, Spanish is very important for me now, big in Uruguay. And I'm definitely trying to

improve my Spanish much more than I'm here, now that I'm here. But for something like chess or Jiu-jitsu. That's a great example. It's really becoming more dangerous, like you said, and more competent. I mean, you're becoming competent at a unique and difficult game, but you're also becoming dangerous and learning how to become dangerous, which is not a very common thing nowadays. With chess, you're learning how to think. You're learning how to think strategically and long-term, which is one of the big ideas of the preparation, to think long-term, to think about how you can learn skills now or how you can put yourself in the correct position to progress over time. But for something like Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, it's just

something that makes you physically dangerous, which is, I think, equally as important over time, Sure. Well, once again, I, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu, I think, is, I mean, if you've ever rolled, which I want to be very clear to the, you and the listener, I have rolled, but I am by far anywhere near skilled at it. But like, once you, once you get on the mat, you're like, oh, this makes complete sense, right? Like, I mean, it's a martial art. It's learning how to be in a very uncomfortable situation, right? We just don't have that forced upon us. much anymore and yet you read some of the things that happened through history and you go yeah that'd be a very valuable skill being able to protect not only yourself but the ones you loved like I mean that makes complete sense the games uh you know if I hadn't been introduced to Tom Luongo and had him on the show multiple times he is a guy who looks at geopolitics from from essentially playing games which which sounds funny except once you play games you see strategy you see how to, well, the rules and how to win, right? And the world, whether you like it or not,

at times, resembles a big game. For sure, for sure. Yeah. And I think, I mean, I've only really played chess as a strategy game, but I think it's been very helpful over time, especially just improving. I was terrible at it a year ago, that's for sure. But improving at it and recognizing certain patterns and learning how to deal with those patterns for sure. So when you, let's talk about chess for a second. Like when you're working on it, are you, do you have a partner? Are you reading about it? Are you doing both? How, how are you working on chess daily? Usually I just spend 30 minutes. I have some basic things that I do every day. Chess is included with that. And that's just 30 minutes of it. I play it online.

And in the beginning, I was reading chess books, one from Bobby Fisher, a famous grandmaster from I think 60s and 70s, I'm pretty sure. But from him. And then I have a friend, a good friend, who is a very, very good chess player. And I've gotten the chance to play with him multiple times, and he beats me every time. But those are all great learning experiences. But day-to-day, it's just 30 minutes of chess, 10-minute games on chess.com. And that's just a way to kind of maintain the skill.

And then if I really get into trying to learn more about it, then I'll play against that good friend or read more about it. Maybe you walk me through. Maybe that's, you know, like you mentioned that day-to-day you have certain things you do. It's kind of the routine. I assume built in. Is that the thought process on week to week? Or are you, just walk me through this preparation.

I'm, you know, like, is there certain things you have to get done in a certain period of time? Well, see, that's a thing, is that it's, there's an outline to it, but the contents are all up to the individual. The outline, the basic outline, it really starts off with recognizing constraints. There's a good quote from Teddy Roosevelt. That's, do what you can with what you have where you are. So you have to recognize your constraints. Realize what resources you have. So if you're a young man with no money, then getting a menial job.

I mean, I worked at Office Depot this time last year and then worked at a pizza place as well. Getting a menial job. And then you can also go to EMT school for somewhere around $1,500. and then build your way up from there, but it's really starting off with recognizing the constraints you have being the place you are, the resources you have. And then using Doug's list, I think, is also a great way to start. Seeing what you can do from these games, activities, and occupations, picking out a few things that interests you the most in pursuing those things as much as possible. And so my routine that I have is not as strict as one might expect. I have a basic few things I want to get done every day like chess, Spanish, reading,

sometimes riding, lifting weights, and that can also include BJJ or Muay Thai every once in a while. But that's all what I have come up with. And that's the strange part about the preparation is that it's, you have to decide where you want to go and what you want to do. We can give you, like, we're trying to write a book on the preparation at the moment so that we can really frame exactly what it is and be able to give young men an understanding of how they can progress through the preparation. But it's all up to you. you have to decide what you want to do. And for me, I've made up everything up until this point. Everything, including going to the EMT school.

And along the way, I've had help like Tyler Olson from Minuteman EMS reached out to me. And he gave me the opportunity to work on wildfires this past summer as an EMT. So some opportunities come along the way. but it's a, it's a self-created path, and it's continuously self-created. And that's why it's so hard to pin down exactly what it is, because there's no, it's, it's not a step-by-step program. You know what I mean? So it's, it's, it is and it isn't. Because it is, it is in the sense that you're choosing a path that is, is it not college, it's not going, you know, grabbing the first job you can. But on the flip

side, in the structure of it, the structure is kind of build your own venture is kind of the way I hear it. Yes. And I mean, it could be framed that way, but I think it's more serious than that, at least to me, it's more serious than that because I mean, I wrote an article just the other other day called Not Much Time. And the main idea of that article is that we really don't have much time. Even if you or I were to live 100 years, it goes by very fast. And I'm sure you know this, especially with having kids. It feels like two seconds goes by and all of a sudden they're this much taller, you know? So we really don't have that much time. And I think life needs to be taken much more seriously than it is, much more seriously. And utilizing that time is incredibly important.

One of my most, one of the things that inspired me most at the beginning of the preparation was the story of the Count of Monte Cristo, who is this guy who's 19. He has the girl. He has the new, great career because he becomes captain of Laferion, which is a merchant ship in, I guess this was early 1800s, Napoleon's era. So he becomes captain of the ship, and then he's betrayed by his best friend and other people around him, and he's sent to the Chateau d'if, which is the equivalent of a maximum security prison in that time. He sent there, and he's going to spend the rest of his life in this prison. For six years, he just slowly fades away, really. He's expecting to die. He tries to off himself one time, and on the anniversary of his imprisonment, he gets whipped every year. So he

thinks it's all coming to an end until he meets a priest who comes into his cell. The priest was trying to actually dig out and escape the prison, but he dug the wrong. direction and dug into Edmond Dante's cell instead. And for the next, the last eight years of the Count of Monte Cristo's imprisonment, the priest teaches him sword fighting, hand-to-hand combat, history, economics, a vast array of skills, reading and riding as well. And for those eight years, he develops those skills. And so once he emerges and can eventually escape the Chateau he becomes the Count of Monte Cristo. And I mean, it's a story of revenge. So forget about that part. But it's everything else, becoming competent, becoming extremely capable. I mean, he is able to orchestrate

his life in a way that nobody else can because of the skills he developed. So I think using that story is, has been a great help to me because it really does show what can be done within a fairly small amount of time within eight years. And it's a, it's a story that reminds me that time matters. Time really does matter. I think, yeah, people don't take life as seriously as it should be taken. We don't know how much time we have, not even close. Even if, like I said, even if we live to be 100 years old, that time goes by in an instant. And to not utilize the time you have and to not find out who you actually want to become is a grave mistake and one that you will come to deeply regret by the time you reach the end of your life.

I mean, that's something that Doug talks about is B-Doo have. I'm sure you've probably heard and mentioned this. But the idea that generally, to live a good life, you need to live a good life, you need to. you be the person you want to be, do the things that the person you'd want to be would do, and then you reap the rewards, the benefits over time by having. And I think our culture has become focused on the have part of things only instead. And we completely bypass the being and doing, which creates a very empty and meaningless life. for most people, that they will definitely regret by the end of it.

So utilizing the time and utilizing, especially when you're young, the energy you have to gain skills and have experiences. I've met a lot of great people over the past year, a lot of great people. So, yeah, I think we all need to take life a bit more seriously. Well, it's interesting. I got to interview a man who turns 100 in January. So he's 99 and whatever. I don't know.

Is that 7.8s? Whatever it works out to regardless. One of the things that he talked about was, you know, basically how quick it goes. You know, he's 100. And you think in our world, 100 is old, folks. You know, what's the oldest person on the planet? that 125. I don't even know if it's that anymore.

I think at one point it was, regardless, you kind of get the point. And I think one of the things, you know, I'm really curious talking with you, just to see how your brain thinks. Because on this side, you know, interviewing as many people as I've been fortunate enough to do,

one of the things it's really pushed on my brain is time to think longer than what North American society wants us to do, you know? It's, you know, we think in essentially weeks, you know, live for the weekend. If you go politically, it's, you know, terms for your terms. And, and yet we don't think really past that. And when my brain hears you talk, you know, a short year amount of time, eight years, I think that's a long amount of time. And yet in the course of a life, what you're saying is, you know, if you approach the eight year process of like, where do I want to be? In eight

years, I can be wherever I want to be. If I just go after it like that, heck, shorten it four years, where could you be? And how if you start when you're 19, heck, you're 18, I guess when you started. That's a really interesting thought process to try and get younger people to think on because you think about what do you do when you're 18, 19, how seriously do you take where you're going to be when you're 25 or younger than that, right? I mean, that's a really interesting thought, Maxim. Yeah, well, I wrote this down before we started so that I could, I thought that I might end up mentioning this. But we as a culture used to take things much more seriously.

I mean, Thomas Jefferson was running a 2,500-acre farm with 250 employees at the age of 13, with both parents dead. George Washington didn't go to school until he was 11. and the first thing he studied was trigonometry. And then by the time he was 17, he became the surveyor of Culpeper County. And America's first Admiral, Admiral Dewey, sailed a warship from Peru to Boston in 1815. And it was a British warship that he, when he was 12 years old, captured himself and captained back to Boston. And then Thomas Edison, when he was very young, had his own newspaper.

business and he had access to Civil War News before everyone else. And so he would sell these newspapers to people going by on trains. And he'd make more in a day than most working men would make in a month. But that's just an example of how we used to take things more seriously. Well, I think of... Sorry, another one that's... I mean, that has just come across the podcast, right? I got to interview her and I was just like fascinated by the story was Tanya Abbey.

Tanya Abbey was at one point she no longer is, the youngest female to sail the world. And she was, she was thrown on a boat with like not zero experience on a sailboat, but between like a true sailor and her, she might as well have been. She'd had like a couple months sailing before, never by herself. And her dad kicked her out and pushed her into this boat and off she went. And the story reads like what you think it would. It is, it's insane. And I'm like, I hate the water, terrified up. Like folks, I live on a landlocked province.

I like, I like solid ground. But reading that story, man, I went, a guy should really go sail the ocean and go see what it's all about. Because there would be things you couldn't comprehend that are out there. And yet that terrifies me. And yet we need to do things that terrify us, right? Exactly. This whole, the entire process throughout the preparation thus far has been one of following fear, really.

When I first started, I was even afraid to start EMT school. I was afraid to start EMT school. Because I figured that I'd look like a fool, which of course I'm going to look like a fool, if you're learning anything, you're going to look like a fool. But I was afraid of everything I did, starting Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. I actually went to a BJJ place in Boise and then one Colorado. But I was afraid every time.

I was afraid with everything I've done thus far, really. Anytime I had to learn something from someone, going to the Wrangler School, I mean, learning how to pack animals, horses and mules into the back, country in Colorado. I was afraid to do that. I was afraid to work on wildland fires because I knew nothing about it. But yeah, it's following fear. And I think that's definitely not something people do anymore. People don't want to look like a fool or pursue what makes them anxious or fearful. I mean, I'm sure what was her name, Tanya? Tanya, right? The woman. Tanya Abbey.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure she was very afraid the entire time, at least a good portion of the time. I would be too. I hate the water. So I'm with you on that. But yeah, follow the fear. Follow the fear.

What have you learned? You know, you know, it's interesting. So now, like where I sit, you know, they always talk about public speaking and how it's like the number one fear in the world. And, you know, which is really interesting, right? Over the fear of death. And I don't know if that's changed folks, but at one point, that's what I was told in college, whether or not that's still the case. And I took a public speaking course because I thought, oh, I'll just get over the fear, right? And the lady, you know, do I remember a ton about that course?

No, but I remember the first day. And the first day, she said, I'm going to teach you the trick to getting over your fear of speaking. And I'm like leaning over my desk thinking, okay, here we go. And she said, you're never going to get over it. You're always going to have that fear. I'm like, that isn't the answer I want. You know, and yet, and yet, that's become way more useful to me now as I get up, you know, and do this, obviously on the daily as folks know, but, you know, now I've put on several events in front of, you know, hundreds of people. I've had to speak in front of hundreds of people.

And that fear I've changed into almost excitement. So, you know, because they really resemble each other. playing sports in front of a large crowd, that's like you get amped up for the game. If fear is almost the same thing, I'm curious on your journey with that, going into things like, man,

I don't want to go back into this uncomfortable situation. You know, EMT, firefighting, jiu-jitsu. Every time I get on the mat, I'm like, oh, this is uncomfortable. You know, I'm sure putting yourself in positions where you're not the expert. You're constantly learning.

That fear, What have you learned about that? I've learned, well, actually, just exactly like you said, it never goes away. It never does go away. And it has doled over time because you get used to the feeling. And sometimes it is like excitement, just exactly, exactly like you said. But there's, well, there's different aspects to it. Like, I guess social anxiety is a big fear that was.

always part of it. And so learning that people don't care, that was a very important lesson. But in terms of just doing things that, like I said, you should follow the fear. That fear is a great unfortunate sometimes, but great indicator of where you need to go. There's a Carl Young quote that's something like, I'm completely butchering the quote and not even going to get it close to what it actually is. But it's basically something like what you fear doing is exactly what you need to do. That's exactly where you need to go. It's something like that. But you could also take the Marcus Aureli's quote, which is the obstacle is the way.

And the obstacle is not the thing you need to do. to do as much as, or you're trying to do, as much as the fear itself that is the obstacles. Because that's the only really big thing that's going to stop you from doing anything. I mean, you can have bumps and difficult, like bridges you need to cross along the way, but fear is the main obstacle to starting anything. So just being able to recognize it, yeah. Carl, Carl Jung, I pulled it up. It says where your fear is, there is your task.

And, you know, I'm reminded of Jordan Peterson because he talks about going to the, you know, into the depths to fight the dragons, you know, and where the dragon is, the gold is. Right. It's always covering, it's always hoarding. It's always protecting its gold, right? It's, it's prize. And, you know, it's interesting. Like, yeah, if you can master your fears, the world becomes,

this place where where you can really excel. You know, I think of, you know, when I was, when I was your age, my brother, my older brother, one of my older brothers, I should say, and a friend, we biked across Canada on pedal bikes. And when I try and recount that story, at times I'm like, man, we were morons. Because I just got asked the other day, did you train? I'm like, no, we didn't train. We just went. And I went further.

I'd never changed a bike tire before. I'd never realized you could run, you know, you could ride your bike so much, your chain would break. And silly things like that that, you know, should be obvious. But until you go do it and you have no one to rely on but yourself, you get over some fear real fast. And then once you've completed tasks, you know, I think of your year of the preparation. I'm kind of curious. Well, I've got a couple things. But one, I guess I would say is I bet you look at the world and go, there's probably

nothing I can't do. You know, nothing. There was a, there was a slogan back when we bike Canada. And I believe it was a Nike slogan, if memory serves me correct. And I think it was impossible as nothing. Instead of nothing is impossible, it was impossible is nothing. And I remember finishing that bike trip and having that thought like cemented in my brain. There's nothing I can't do. Can I struggle? Oh, for sure. Go back folks and listen to the first episode I ever did of this podcast, or maybe the first 50. There's some struggle in there. But it was always, also like water off the ducks back. Like this is going to get better.

I just have to continue to put in the reps. It's going to get better. And I would think, you know, the preparation, when you started that EMT course and you're terrified to where you sit now, I see, I don't know. I sit here and I think, you don't seem 19. Not that I know what a 19 year old should, you know, typically be.

It's just you seem like you're pretty confident in where you're heading. Once you stack accomplishments, I mean, even a great physical account like biking cross Canada. I mean, I've hiked now three 14ers in Colorado. What are 14ers? 14,000 foot mountains. Okay.

Yeah. But any, anytime you stack a lot of accomplishments, it definitely does make you realize, I mean, of course, every time you have to get over some level of fear, you have to get past that layer of fear. But once you do that, and then now you look at an entire piece of paper that you filled out that has a list of your most notable accomplishments, and you look at that, you can see that each day and go, yeah, I think whatever I try to do won't actually be that difficult. And it will be anything. fear that comes along with it will be will be nothing impossible is nothing exactly i don't know you've been reading books are you a movie guy at all i i it's kind of funny i only stick to about five or six movies that i like and i watch nothing else but what are you five or six what are

your five or six movies you like um count to monte cristo uh gladiator Man on Fire, The Last Samurai. I know I'm missing some. Fury, that's another one. Basically, movies along, oh, Legends of the Fall, that's another one. Movies with a hero's journey, basically. That's what I like. Well, it's interesting.

As you're talking, what it comes to mind is an inception. right lina urtacaprio and tom hardy and joseph gordon levid anyways joseph gordon levid is is got this machine gun and he's trying to shoot down bad guys and he's struggling right there's 80 of them shooting at him and tom hardy comes by with like this giant cannon and he looks at him he goes sometimes you have to dream a little bit a little bigger darling and then he just blows the crap out everybody and i'm reminded of that every time i i think really small sometimes you just have to bring your gaze up of where you can get to what you can at what you're actually capable, might actually scare you a little bit, you know, like, oh man, I didn't realize I was capable of that. It happens to me from time to time of where you, you're aiming, like maybe

I could just hike 6,000 kilometers, 6,000 feet, sorry, no. And then you bring up, you did three of them. It's like, well, I mean, where is the limit then for maximum? Where is the limit of where you could go in the future? And I guess, where are you going in the future? You know, you've been through it a year now. You got EMT, you got your wildland firefighter, you've got all these new skills. Where are you directing your aim now? Like, you know, after you've done all this, you go, okay, interesting. Well, I think this is where I want to go. Have you figured that out yet? It's a very difficult question, actually, because I, as I said, am always having to figure out what I am going to do next and it is a continuous and never-ending process. And so I think

the it's that question isn't a big big question in my mind actually. And I think it's it's a question that we naturally ask ourselves quite often. Um, but I just aim, I'm going to just, aim to learn more and do more. And exactly where that takes me, I'm not sure. I wasn't sure a year ago. I had no interest in going to EMT school. And then I ended up working on wildland fires. So it's a question that cannot be answered, really. As much as I'd like to give you a solid. No, you're giving me, you're giving me the answer. You're giving me the alchemist, right? The alchemist, is a journey to go find who you are. And it'll lead you to places that if you try and plan it out,

at times you can, right? No, next week I'm going to do this. But, you know, I'm reminded folks of Jurassic Park. Book, you know, one of the great books, if you have never picked it up, you really should. Because in there, it really talks about life doesn't happen with straight linearity. each thing you do can set you off into completely different realms that you would have never

dreamed possible. And so what you're talking about is essentially that. You're on this journey and, and, you know, I'm melding together the alchemist and Jurassic Park. But to me, I get what you mean. But I mean, it makes perfect sense to me, right? Like, I guess more, I was more interested in, you know, like, do you want to be similar to? a Doug Casey or do you want to be more similar to and you know I'm going to pick something that's completely on the opposite side I guess my answer would be Donald Trump right running for public office and I guess that's not you know like he was a business guy and he got pulled into different things I just I guess I'm curious you know like when you're aiming towards something is it so that

you can be this writer and philosopher and write about things so that younger generations can learn from your path or is it you know you have something you really want to do and accomplish maybe those are both the same bloody things i i mean i don't think i'm in a position now to help other young men as much as i will be within five years from now and so at that point i definitely like to be a great aid to other young men but what I aim to be something is someone who cannot be labeled as any one thing. I think we all we all want to be naturally want to be specialists and we want to say I'm a doctor, I'm a lawyer, I'm a philosopher even I'm a I'm an EMT but I don't I want to be well that's the thing

with Doug is that he, anytime you put a label on him, except for the label of philosopher, I think you could put that on him. And that wouldn't degrade him. That wouldn't limit him in any way. But anytime you put a label on someone, it really does diminish their soul. And so when we seek labels, I think it does just that. So do I want to be a Donald Trump? Definitely not. But yeah, someone who cannot be... You want to be a Swiss Army knife. Sure, sure. That's...

Yeah, yeah, that's a good way of putting it. But it's... I mean, again, the Count of Monte Cristo is a great example because there's no way he could label him as anything. I mean, except as a count. That's the only thing. But he was so knowledgeable, even just his understanding of things like chemistry.

But you could go chemistry, to sword fighting, to hand-to-hand comment. to combat, economics to philosophy, to the four or five languages he knew. I mean, there's no possible way to label him. And I think that's something that young men actually want to strive for. I think we get caught up in finding those labels and going, oh, if I was labeled that, then I would have this sort of prestige that comes with the label. but I think what young men actually want is to be the man who cannot be labeled, to be the man who just is him.

If you say his name, if you say Doug Casey, you go, man, I don't need to say anything else. I don't need to call him anyone thing. He just, he is, he is. So that's not exactly the answer you were looking for maybe, but. I'm not looking. I guess on this side, I'm not looking for the right answer. I'm looking for your answer, right? I find the way you, your brain is working.

You know, very intriguing to me. And why I just go like, I'll be interested to hopefully, you know, Lord Willen talk to you in another year, or maybe another year, right? Because like one of the things that you're doing is unique. I find that intriguing. It doesn't mean you're not the only one doing this. I'm sure there's lots of different young men doing their own versions of similar things.

And yet I'm kind of curious on where this ends, not ends in the sense of in five years it's done. Because I don't think that's what you're talking about. But I, you know, when you say this isn't the answer you're looking for, I'm like, well, no, I'm just looking. I'm just curious on where your brain is at and with your thought process because I find that very intriguing. Now, you mentioned a book. You know, if I was a parent, which I am, and you wrote a book on this, you would have me intrigued. Like, I would be like, I better go pick that book up. Because, you know, right now for my children, my oldest is eight in 10 years, he'll be, you know, graduating.

And then he's going to have his own, you know, adventure awaits and away he goes. And as a parent, I'm like, it's imperative on me that I give him at least some avenues. Like, oh, you could do all these different things. It's on you to choose what you want. Where is the book? Like just not like, where is it on the timeline of being done? And then maybe the second thing would be, and what do you hope to convey in the book? The book is at a standstill at the moment and we've had a lot of.

difficulty with trying to make sure we frame it all properly because we want it to be we're not just trying to uh michel obama book and get it out as fast as possible and make it sell as many copies as possible even though no one buys it uh we're trying to make a something that is very thorough um but the contents of the book what we're trying to convince there's a couple different pieces, a couple different aspects to it. And one of them is about the preparation itself, how to design it, how to frame it for yourself, and recognizing limitations is a part of that. But then also how to choose what you want to pursue and how to structure your time to make sure you're as efficient as possible.

And that's the more practical piece of the book, but unless we make any changes to it from here, any significant changes, the first half of the book is much more philosophical, and part of it is based upon building a moral code, which we believe comes first. we believe that there's basically you can think of it as an inner world and the outer world and the outer world is the skills you build money you make things you do places you go but the inner world is

the is character and having a moral compass having a moral code and so we we try to talk about how to build that moral code we give historical examples that

make it more obvious why you should have one. So that's part of the inner world, but then there's other things like economics, like basic economics is part of the book. And that might change in the future as well. Who knows? But yeah, there's two different aspects to it. The inner world, outer world, and how those two things come together so that you can really build a solid individual.

because sure you can you can learn a lot of skills but if you are not the man you want to be if you cannot control yourself control your desires or master fear for example then you're going to be disappointed with yourself anyway so it's it's trying to bring that all together and hopefully we'll structure it in a way that is easy to read for parents and people around my age. And that conveys what we want to actually put across people. Curious, on your travels, have you read the Bible? I have read bits and pieces of it,

but I've had a very difficult time trying to get through it. And I think that's because I'm starting from the beginning. I'm starting from Genesis, and I'm trying to read it like every other book. page by page all the way through. And I think that's, it isn't easy to do. But do you think that's something that would be

beneficial to do in your mind? Well, I can't, obviously my journey is not yours. But on this podcast, certainly in my pursuit of truth

and trying to understand how the world, works, it has led me closer and closer to the Bible. And once I picked up the Bible and I tried doing the exact same thing you're saying. And I, you know, I tried going through Genesis and I just, I got frustrated. And once you get frustrated, I don't care who you are. You're not learning anything anymore. You're not, you're not seeing the words for what they mean and the stories for what they are.

So I went, I don't know if this is the way to do it. I'll just tell you how I did it and you take from whatever you like. I went, I began with maybe I could read the red letters, you know, Jesus's words. Because at one point I put him in the same category as maybe Gandhi or, you know, some of the names you've mentioned. Like, is he, you know, whether or not he's God, let's just go with at some point, even to this point, he's one of the most influential people on the planet. Yeah. So I started reading his, his words, his parables and different things. But what then I, my brain then went to is I didn't fully understand the context of the stories and the things he was talking about. So then I went, I'm going to read the New Testament. I'm just going to start with, you know, the gospels, the four of them, Mark, Matthew Mark, Luke, John. And then it gave me the context of what they were talking about. And it's funny. in there is a ton of wisdom, just a ton of, I can't believe how much wisdom is packed in the Bible.

It's literally insane. Yeah. Now, for me on this journey, you know, I came from a Christian household, but I ran away from it. And then when I was roughly 36, I got confronted by things that I couldn't put back in the box. I just, they didn't know how to deal with it. That led me to the Bible, then started to explore the Bible. And now I don't read the Bible from start to finish. Just literally the other day, I got told about King Solomon.

I've been reading Proverbs. Like, you want just wisdom packed into a day? Do the, I don't know if this is a thing. Christians can tell me if I'm right or wrong. But the Proverbs challenge. So Proverbs is 31 chapters, and you read a chapter a day. So for every day of the month, go read a proverb. And in the Proverbs is like the most insane wisdom packed into like three minutes of reading.

You know, you go read the book of Mark of Orillius or others. I guarantee it's got roots into Proverbs. It's just like it's how to be a good human being right there. And it explains it quite well. Well, then somebody's like, have you read Ecclesiastes? And I'm like, well, no. Or maybe I did at one point and I have no idea. And it's the book that comes after Proverbs.

And it's when King Solomon, and once again, folks, I may be getting this a bit wrong, forgive me, is when he's older. And he's talking about life and everything he's done and what that means and the things that stand out to him. So to me, I don't know when I hear the preparation, I hear it. And I'm like, this is really interesting. The only thing I would try and tell my younger self, whether or not he would have listened, I don't think he would have. but regardless, I would have pushed on them to start reading the Bible a lot sooner and to realize there is more of this world than meets the eye. And when you're building character and that framework, the reason why North America is such a crown jewel of the world for what it stands for and what

it means is it comes from values straight out of the Bible. And those values have perpetuated into all the great writers of our time. And so I guess, yes, I would really suggest the Bible. But once again, at your own pace, your own time, and whether or not you take that, that's entirely yours to do. But on my side, it has been very influential in my life. Well, I'm curious, what great lessons would you want you, young yourself to get out of reading all that?

Well, as you can tell, I have no issue to talk. And in James, it talks about the tongue being the rudder of the ship. And at times, if I look back through life, there are times where I've created my own chaos because I just talk too much. And I can already see it in my children. They love, they're very outgoing. Some might even say charismatic. and they love being around people. And so if you're going to be around people and talk a lot, or in my case for a living,

controlling your tongue or starting to understand why you need to do that, I think that's a lesson that we're not taught or we don't understand the seriousness of why that should be. That's a good point. I usually have the opposite problem that you've had. I haven't talked enough in the past, but that's an interesting lesson there. I've read the Jefferson Bible, which is just all Jesus. And I found that very helpful because I think, at least in my opinion, if I want to get something out of all that, I want to get it straight from the source. and I don't really, it's not that I don't care about the stories surrounding it.

I just want to, I want to hear from the man, you know. So I found that very, very helpful as well. Have you read the Jefferson Bible? I haven't read the Jefferson Bible. Okay. Yeah, it's just, it was one of his projects, Thomas Jefferson's projects, that he took out, I guess it's probably like the red letter. as you've mentioned, but he went through a Bible and actually removed, cut out all the pieces

where Jesus was predominant part of the story, and he made his own book out of that. Sure. And I don't know if he called it the Jefferson Bible or people and it. Others. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Well, that's essentially what I did, right? The red letters are the words of Jesus and you cut out everything else.

and I found the story really added to that, I guess is what I'm, uh, okay. Yeah. Because that, that's how I started. Yeah, I wanted to just see what Jesus had to say. But context. Yeah. Yeah.

Right. It gives you context. Exactly. The stories give context to what he's actually saying. So besides the, um, you said the, tongue being the rudder of the ship, right? Besides that being one of the lessons, what other lessons would you offer to your younger self

if you could go back and tell them anything? You judge a tree by the fruit it bears and that it takes season or seasons for that to show. I think that's a really important thought to wrestle with on who you want to be and how you want to, you know. The one I just read in Ecclesiastes about King Solomon,

was a line talking about pressed lips will allow evil to pass, essentially. And I look at COVID. Now, certainly there's nefarious actors in COVID. I don't mean to say nobody was talking, but I think of myself. And I didn't talk about it on here for a solid year. I was concerned, but I had my thoughts. And I just, you know, held my tongue, if you would. And so in one instance, I'm saying you need to guide your tongue.

In another instance, I'm saying if you press your lips and allow evil to pass, you know, you're allowing it to befall society. And I think we all have a part to play in that. And a part can just, you can be not talking about it or not exposing it for what it is. And that is a part. And I think if I could have gone back to myself a few years at the start of COVID, I would have gladly told myself that. And I might have listened then.

I was just, you know, we were already meeting and barns and talking to society behind the scenes. But on this show, in these conversations, I was acting like it didn't exist. I just wanted to keep people happy. I wanted to talk about what was going on in sports. I wanted, you know, to act like it didn't exist when it was literally permeating every part of society. And, you know, I think that's something to really wrestle with and to talk about. I mean, I'm sure there's more. It's a really deep question.

You know, when you say, when I say, you know, where do you want to go? Like, well, that's a really deep question. What you're asking of what I've learned out of the Bible and probably should be writing about it more is probably what I should do. because it seems every time I think I'm about to get bored of the Bible, I get given, you know, what I just had with Ecclesiastes, where I read it in like, I don't know, a couple hours, maybe less. I was just like, I just soaked it up. It was like the sponge was dry and there was some water.

And I couldn't get enough of it. It was just very interesting to me because I think, you know, like when it comes to COVID, we've been talking about, you know, you look at the world. And you see that everybody talks about COVID 2.0 or what have you, all these different agreements that they're trying to sign into place so that they can govern us all. And we can all become just little numbers on a spreadsheet. And my issue with that, Maxim, is we're not the same numbers we were four years ago. Like a lot of us are battle tested. Some more than others.

Some, you know, like are pretty dangerous human beings. and I mean that in the best possible way. And they're not to be trifled with. So when the next one comes, I think things have changed. I think the equation has changed. It doesn't mean they don't have things that they can do with technology

and removing and different things like that. But I mean, think about it. Four years ago, Elon Musk wasn't doing what he's doing. I mean, that's a complete game changer. That's just one. You go down to the lowest level of just people and businesses. It's all changed. And, you know, to give my children the knowledge out of the Bible or my younger self, that's it.

It's a really difficult, deep question. So I appreciate that. You know, you've got me chatting now. Well, when it comes to topics like that, that's where you need a moral code. I mean, when evil confronts you directly, that's the most pertinent and obvious time that you need. moral code and that you need it as young as possible, as young as possible. Because that's another thing. So many, so few young men have any sense or people in general have any sense of what's right or wrong. And the fact that they don't even know what to do when they see something wrong

is a whole other topic. But just having, having no sense of, oh, that's clear evil right there. if we should do something about it. It doesn't, it's very rare to find. And so it's, I think the chances that there will be major events, you could say, that will hurt and destroy a lot of people. And that'll be done by people who have a lot of people. have a lot of power. I think that is very, the chances are very high of that happening again.

And that with that, I mean, basically like the first time with COVID, only a very small percentage of people will understand what is happening and will also understand that it's wrong. And that's all, that all just goes back to not having a moral code. So developing a sense of a moral code, which, I mean, you can definitely look to Jesus for that, for having a clear sense of right and wrong. I mean, he is obviously the man who would have a sense of right and wrong. That that is, there's, there are a few things more important than understanding how you're going to direct yourself, how you're going to operate in the world and what are you, you are going to,

what you're going to allow yourself to do and not to do, what you're going to allow yourself to, um, to, to let happen or when you'll step in and actually act, because there's, there's a lot of talking all the time, but in terms of action, which doesn't have to be, definitely does not have to be aggressive action, but positive action. beneficial action is needed and rare. So moral code, that is the big, big takeaway from COVID, I think. Yeah, I wish I had my Bible with me because one of the things, you know, when you say major events, are there going to be major events?

110% because there's nothing new under the sun. I mean, our version is definitely different. But like, is there going to be, I don't know, war? Well, we already got it going on just in different parts of the world. And I don't know if there's been a day in history where there's been zero war. You've got to go pretty far back. And, you know, and so then you go, well, what are other big events that could happen? Economics and different things like that.

Well, those events are going to happen no matter what. So, you know, those are coming. Oh yeah. Is there going to be another world event like the pandemic and what happened with COVID? Well, if you go back 20 years, they've been trying to put different things like that into place. It seems over and over and over again. So, you know, to me, it's like, are they going to try? Yeah.

But the difference is, is there is a healthy majority of the public that are battle tested now. I just, there's things in place that we're not there day one here. I'm talking specifically here where I sit. They were not there in 2020 of March, let alone 2019 of, you know, December of 2019, when people were actively talking about it. Things have changed. So our thing is going to happen. Yes. Moral compass, you know, like I 100% agree.

You know, it was Jordan Peterson that I think got a ton of people to act because he'd written. about things and I used to have it underlined and I wish I had the line right in front of me regardless he had things written that I'm like I just you know I'm seeing things happen in front of my eyes that I don't agree with at some point and the reason I come back to the Bible is because the Bible talks about all of that that's why it's you know quoted and that's why Peterson adds it to his work because he's literally taking from the Bible you want to go to the source go to the Bible and you'll see it right you know as far as the thing that stuck out

me uh uh from uh ecclesiastes and i just pulled it up if thou see's the oppression of the poor and violent perver perverting of judgment and justice in a province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher than the highest regardeth and there be higher than they and i think what sticks out in my brain of that is like that's you know take that for what it is that two thousand years ago you know roughly and what he's saying is like you know people were screwing the pour over back then and there was justice being perverted back then and there are people above the highest of the justice you know controlling that and on and on it goes it's like wow that's in the bible well okay like to me you start to realize the problems we're wrestling with today have been

around for thousands of years and what you're doing and why it sticks out of my radar is we've been allowing kids to be kids longer and longer and longer and longer. And things in society, there's certain parts that, that, you know, take the housing in, in Canada. I'm not sure about Denver or Uruguay. But here, like the housing market almost prices kids out of getting a house, which means moving out and becoming more independent. And when I hear what you're doing, I go, huh, this is a way to realize the problems have

been there all along. What's changing is the. the people that are dealing with the problems, how quickly will become battle tested in order to face and face our fears. You're facing your fears daily. I find that very intriguing. I think more kids and parents maybe could listen to that and pay attention for whenever the book gets released, because there might be something in there that could be really beneficial

to the younger generation or the upcoming generation. Well, it's interesting that you mentioned that because, I mean, exactly. like you said, there probably will be some major, it seems obvious that there will be major economic problems more so than there are now that will, at very least, severely suppress people from living their lives normally, as they usually would. And that significantly, that causes a lot of trouble for young people, exactly, like you said, trying to get out into the world. I've been fortunate enough that my father has more of a Roman view of a family, which is that, or I guess it's even some other European countries as well, but that you don't have to leave,

you don't have to get kicked out of your house at 18 and become independent because you're all of a sudden. without any real thought because it's hard to think ahead when you're 18, really. So without any thought of what it means, you're kicked out into the world. All of a sudden now you have to pay rent. If you're going to college, you're going to be in debt unless I guess your parents pay for it. But you're going to be wasting time for sure. You have all these new expenses which weigh you down. and now you're slowly getting trapped within what my dad likes to call the doom loop,

where it's this financial downward spiral, or now you with no knowledge, no skills, no ability to really conduct yourself in the world and no understanding of who you are or what you can do, now all of a sudden you're thrust down to the world and you have to bear a unreasonable financial burden. So my dad doesn't have that idea. And he, he's like, yeah, stay here.

And he has, he has the old European idea of like, stay here until you get, you get married, basically. I mean, that's, that's his idea. I don't know if it'll be exactly like that. But the economic problem is, a big portion of it. And the thing about the preparation is that if more parents understood that way of trying to help their kids out into the world and their kids found the preparation and wanted to pursue it, that they could actually learn skills that are already going to put them in a better financial position. I mean, to jump from working at Office Depot and a pizza place,

to then getting at least a certification of an EMT. And a lot of places that's just going to put you at minimum wage still, even though you have qualifications that most people don't. But you can definitely work your way up and you could work on wildfires where I was getting paid a significant amount of money than most people do at my age. I mean, it's a daily rate, but it would come out to $600 a day for me working as an EMT on wildfires. So just being able to stack up those skills and that experience, as you become more useful to other people, you can step up the ladder financially. And yeah, so dealing with the economic problems, I think is a lot easier if you take the path of the preparation instead.

Well, I appreciate you hopping on today and doing this. I'm, you know, where I sit on the book, I'm like, not that I have time, but I'm like, I do have time with kids. And I'm like, there's time for me, you know. I guess before I let you out, if a parent was like, or maybe even a young adult was wanting to follow your work, find more out about what you've been doing, where can they go to find you? So I have a sub-sack page called The Great Man Podcast, and that is, I'm not calling myself the Great Man. That was from a, that name is from a past thing I did where I wrote about Great Man from the past, but yeah, the Great Man podcast on Substack and Maxim Smith on YouTube. Those would be the two main places to go.

Well, I appreciate you hopping on today, Maxim. And I wish you the best here, you know, in your endeavors. And, you know, I might just put it on my calendar from a year from now to reach back out to just see, you know, because it's been a really thought-provoking conversation, at least from my side. I'll be curious to hear what people think of this. But regardless, thanks for doing this. And best of luck here in the future on wherever that takes you. Yeah.

No, thank you, Sean. I really do appreciate it, man. Seriously. Thank you for having me.