Mike Glover is a former Green Beret and CIA contractor who started a business related to training people to be prepared for emergencies.
I first heard of Mike Glover as the guest on an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience.
In that particular podcast episode, they discussed topics including:
More recently, Glover was on episode Podcast #902: How to Survive Any Worst Case Scenario of The Art of Manliness podcast to discuss his new book, Prepared: A Manual for Surviving Worst-Case Scenarios.
I decided to read Prepared because Glover “seemed legit,” and after the last several years, having the capacity to handle unexpected situations has gone from seeming kooky to indulgent to practical to an essential aspect of being a responsible member of your community.
Prepared has seven chapters:
The topics of the first several chapters could be considered “soft skills” of preparedness, and the chapters could be treated as their own mini-book in the self-improvement genre. They include dealing with stress under pressure, how to plan, being aware of your surroundings in the moment, and making decisions. At first, I was concerned the book would be too conceptual. However, I felt it had a lot of value in the way that my college professors would claim their classes would “train you how to think.”
The final three chapters address daily emergency gear, the ability to leave a bad situation quickly, and the ability to stay and survive. They read more like Glover’s cliff notes on big, common topics, albeit with his unique and extensive personal experience.
No chapter in this book contains information that will serve as the definitive or exhaustive guide on the subject it covers. Prepared is more of a book on how to prepare, and it’s a relatively light and fast read. However, after reading this book, I feel motivated and capable of making a list of bad things that are statistically probable to happen to my family, and to put a plan in place to deal with them.