Law 13 · Build Before You Are Ready
The man who paid for his own risk.
Tom Hardy put $2.5 million into Taboo knowing half the room would hate it. On why permission never arrives, and why he stopped waiting for it.
Tom Hardy · Actor
Law 18 · Become Dangerous, Then Govern It
The challenges on the mat are bigger than on set.
The director has a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He says the mat is harder than any film set, because nobody can help you there.
Guy Ritchie · Director, jiu-jitsu black belt
Law 13 · Build Before You Are Ready
Doing things rather than dreaming about them.
DJ, actor, kickboxer, and now director. Elba on a father who died at seventy-two and the urgency that followed.
Idris Elba · Actor
The first cup is the quiet one.
A washed Colombian for the hour before the day gets its hands on you.
Red apple, panela, a long clean finish. Roasted in the UK to order and posted through the letterbox, so it is on the counter when you come down. Grind it while the kettle runs. Drink it before the phone.
Inside every bag there is a card. One of the twenty-two laws, printed on thick stock, yours to keep or pass on. The coffee is the point. The card is the gift.
250 g · Huila, Colombia · Washed · Whole bean or ground
More stories
All stories →One story a week.
Someone who earned their ground, read slowly, in your inbox on a Sunday. The coffee ships to the list first.
About the author
Shane Quigley
The people I interviewed
Actors, athletes, adventurers and founders. Tap a face to read their story.
A code · not motivation
The 22 Laws
of Growth & Freedom
Twenty-two patterns, found in the lives of people who had to earn their ground. Read them slowly. Come back to one.
A man does not rise in one heroic moment. He rises by returning to the work after comfort, failure, resentment, fear, and distraction have all invited him to stop.
One slow, painful brick at a time.
In life, everything meaningful is earned.
Rise Strong. Nothing’s Given.
A new story every week.
RSNG Coffee · No. 01
The Foundation
Washed Colombian. Red apple, panela, a long clean finish.
The first coffee in the range. A clean washed lot from Huila, roasted light to medium for clarity rather than weight, so it is as good black at six in the morning as it is with milk at ten. Roasted in the UK the week it ships, posted flat through the letterbox.
- Origin
- Huila, Colombia
- Process
- Washed
- Roast
- Light-medium
- Weight
- 250g
- Roasted
- UK · to order
- Inside
- One law card
The first roast is on its way.
Inside every bag
A card in every bag
Thick uncoated card, one colour, one of the twenty-two laws on the front and the whole of it on the back. It comes stapled to the back of the bag and tears off clean. Keep it on the fridge. Give it to someone who needs it.
Stop wishing it was. Start building.
rsng.com/laws/1
Later · the tool
Pocket will hold you
to the code.
It reaches you only when it needs you.
An agent on your phone that carries the 22 Laws as its operating code and runs one practice a day in the law's voice. It is not ready. The coffee, the laws and the proof are. Leave your email and you will hear when it is.
No blue. No streaks you did not earn. The accent appears only when something needs you.
Today
Become Hard To Threaten
You named your salary yesterday. If it stopped on Friday, what is the first thing you would do on Monday?
Practice
Do the work.
Short, plain exercises. Each one serves a law. Most take minutes a day. Pick one and start tonight.
Alex Honnold · Free solo climber
He trained his fear down and gives each move the focus it needs.
Three thousand feet of El Capitan without a rope, then a fingerboard session in his van that afternoon. Alex Honnold on focus, fear and why free soloing is not bravery.
Asked whether he has trained his brain to react less to fear:
I think that I’ve trained it to be less active over time. I used to be pretty scared on climbs that now I consider completely trivial – clearly 15 years of climbing outside has had an impact on me. And there’s maybe an even more pronounced difference in my reaction to public speaking. As a child I couldn’t speak in front of any kind of group, or really talk to strangers at all, yet now as an adult I can calmly speak in front of any kind of group.
Asked how he stays focused after the hardest move:
Yeah, in the case of the boulder problem I definitely switched into a celebratory mode as soon as I grabbed the finishing hold. But that’s because I could – on easy climbing I don’t need to be as focused, I can relax and enjoy. So as soon as I got to the easy climbing my mind relaxed. I think that I typically give the level of focus that’s required.
Asked how he defines bravery:
I would define them as overcoming fear, but in order to do what’s required of you. I think there’s an important distinction with free soloing, which I wouldn’t really consider brave or courageous. I free solo for my own pleasure, so even though it can sometimes be scary it’s still something that I willingly choose. [...] I think that bravery involves some degree of overcoming unelected fear, like running into a burning building to rescue someone. Presumably no one wants to run into the building, but with enough courage they can force themselves to do the right thing and assist someone in need.