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.
David Brudö · Founder, Remente
Define success before you burn out chasing it.
David Brudö chased a vague idea of success until he burned out. From that wreckage he built Remente, a goal-setting app, and now starts each day breathing quietly with his team.
Asked whether he burned out by striving too hard for a goal:
My ambition, my goal was to become a successful entrepreneur. The interesting thing is that that kind of term to me was not really defined. I was striving for something that was not really clear. Many of us, when we define what makes someone successful, it’s attributed to materialistic things. But it doesn’t matter if you have one, 10 or $100 million in your bank account, that’s not what will make you happy and if you think that it is, you definitely won't become happy.
Asked whether the shifting role of men is creating pressure:
The traditional, stereotypical male role, is that you should suck it up, be quiet and just be badass – don’t talk about feelings. Now, you’re supposed to be more sensitive and open minded and talk about your feelings, but you still should be male and badass. I think that short-circuits a lot of men. [...] The male role is really challenged, which I think is a good thing, but it also makes us confused.
Asked what he would tell someone starting out:
I think, in general, you need to dare to do things. You should be fearless. You should also be humble and don’t be too hard on yourself; and talk to a lot of people about your experiences. We’re expected to perform with 110% every day in every aspect of life. If you look at a professional athlete, they’re not maxing out. They’re not performing at their top capacity every day because their body doesn’t support that. It’s not physically possible, but we mentally are supposed to do that every day. My greatest asset is actually this 1.3kg grey matter thing between my ears. That’s really my USP here. If I don’t take care of that, what will happen then? We need to treat our brain as a muscle – it behaves just the same way. You can strengthen it, but it also needs the rest, and it needs the proper tools to function in the best way possible.