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.
Dwayne Johnson · Actor
In his house there is nothing that cannot be said.
Dwayne Johnson learned the hard way that hidden feelings set a man back. At home there is one rule about honesty, and every day starts with coffee and a 4am run.
Asked about the last time he disagreed with his family:
Family disagreements are more a process of everyone being encouraged to speak their minds openly, and I think that’s really important. We have a rule that there is nothing that cannot be said, as I believe when you hide away feelings and emotions that can really be damaging, not just for yourself, but for those around you. [...] That’s exactly what I did when I was growing up, and it set me a long way back. Only when I started opening up about my feelings and experiences – whether that was feeling an outcast, being bullied or something else, did I find I could work a way forward because, essentially, I wasn’t having to do that by myself.
Asked how he keeps up such a workload:
This comes from failing to make it as a pro footballer. I was depressed, very down, and really wondering what the point of it all was, as I had invested so much of myself into that life. For a long while I was extremely depressed and it was only through time and some incredible support from my friends that I managed to get through it at all, because I felt it was the end of the road for me. [...] However, when I finally picked myself up I made a pledge that I’d never end up being that person ever again. I’d seen a very dark side of myself and I fear him ever returning. I have a very simple way to keep him away, and that’s with positive mentality, positive spirit, positive confidence, always. To achieve that, I get up every day and exercise – gym, weights, cardio, Pilates, yoga… whatever.
Asked about his training:
I tend not to change too much – variety is important but so is consistency, and unless I’m away on a long shoot then I’ll stick to a similar routine because I have my gym and my home comforts and my standard. I like to know what’s coming; I like to know what I need to tackle each day, and that will always start with a coffee and a 4am run, usually outdoors, then back to the gym for the cross-trainer. [...] I’m then looking at iron therapy – 100lb (45kg) dumbbells, deadlifts, then pull-ups, squats; but it’s always the weights that get me in that headspace where I can be content and creative. Without the weights I don’t feel I’ve got to where I need to get to in my head.