The Man In The Arena

Responsibility, Trials, and Triumph

Too often we defer our responsibility to act. We forget ourselves as we look to those around us to solve the problem and relieve us of our responsibility.

It’s easy to point fingers, it’s easy to find someone to blame.

“Up to a point a man’s life is shaped by environment, heredity, and the movements and changes in the world around him. Then there comes a time when it lies within his grasp to shape the clay of his life into the sort of thing he wishes to be. Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate. Everyone has it within his power to say, ‘This I am today; that I will be tomorrow.’ The wish, however, must be implemented by deeds.”

-Louis L’Amour

Someone to blame

A person can drag the weight of resentment for any human. You can resent your parents for a poor childhood. You can believe yourself to be a victim of the oppressive world. You can despise another man for his achievements, or hold a grudge against an employer or employee.

At the end of the day, all of these feelings stem from thinking of yourself as a victim to outside forces.

And, we can always find a way to deceive ourselves into believing that the ability for action, whatever that action may be, does not lie in our hands but in someone else’s.

Victims can view inaction as virtuous.

What’s needed

The greatest achievements, the most beautiful eras, have all come from men of action. These men didn’t seek to stand idly by and critique the problems of the world. No, they found solutions, they made improvements.

They lived life in a boots-on-the-ground fashion. If there was conflict, whether that be in the outside world or within themselves, they rushed to it.

These great men like Teddy Roosevelt lived life on their own path. By that fact alone, they were required to act, think, build, and create.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

-Teddy Roosevelt

The world has come to the end of an era, the greatest figures we have come from the past. We are in a state of limbo between the previous era and the next.

This provides lots of opportunity to those who take life by the horns.

Who knows what the next era will look like.

All thats certain is that it will be shaped by those who venture down their own path. The men and women who live according to their own principles will found the new era.

The Preparation

This program, which we like to call “The Preparation” is meant to create men who live life in the arena.

The Preparation is meant for the individual who wants to choose their own path in life and leave the commonly treaded, dull, and lifeless paths behind.

This program is designed to be a replacement for the only three routes advertised to young men today -  go to college, the military, or a dead-end job. 

All of these typical routes of life are designed to shape us into cogs for a wheel that doesn’t serve us.  Wasted time, debt, lack of skills, and a soul crushing job define many who follow the traditional route.  

This program, which we can call “The Preparation”, is meant to guide young men on a path where they properly utilize their time to gain skills, build relationships, and reach a state of being truly educated. The Preparation is meant to set young men up for success.

What appeals to me about The Preparation is the idea of the type of man I could be. The path to becoming a skilled, dangerous, and competent man is much more clear now. I’ve always been impressed by characters like The Count of Monte Cristo, men who accumulated knowledge and skills over a long period of time and eventually became incredibly capable men. 

Young men today do not have a guiding light. We have few mentors and no one to emulate. We have been told that there are only a few paths to success in this world. For intelligent and ambitious people - college is sold to us as the one true path.  And yet that path seems completely uncertain today. 

We desperately need something real to grab onto. I think this is it.

I’m putting the ideas into action. Will it work? I can’t be sure, but I’m doing my best.  I’m more than 30 weeks into the program at this point. So far, so good.

You can follow me along as I follow the program.  Each week, I summarize all that I did.

My objective in sharing this is three fold:

1. Documenting my progress holds me accountable.

2. I hope these updates will show other young men that there is another path we can take.

3. For the parents who stumble upon this log, I want to prove to you that telling your children that the conventional path - college, debt, and a job is not the foolproof path you think it is.