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.
Gary Woodland · Golfer
He thought winning would come easy. The drought taught him otherwise.
Basketball or golf, then an early win, then two and a half dry years. Gary Woodland on overconfidence, the grind back and never being satisfied, even with a US Open.
Asked how it felt waiting more than two years for a second win:
I must say, early on in my career I thought I had got the hang of winning – as you might do when you win so early after turning professional. You can fall into that trap of thinking things are going to come easy, and I think that’s natural, because as a sportsperson, you work on confidence. [...] When I won for the second time in 2013 at the Barracuda Championship, I almost felt that I was in control and that when I wanted to win or needed to, I could turn it on and off like a tap. [...] I realise now I was falling into the trap of overconfidence, or arrogance, or whatever you want to call it. [...] Ultimately, that the longer a period without winning goes on, the more you put the weight on your own shoulders. While it became a grind both mentally and physically, the feeling of getting another win was great.
Asked what winning the US Open did for his confidence:
When you work so hard at something for so long and it finally pays off by winning one of the biggest tournaments in your sport, it’s mind-blowing. But you do recognise the value of it, and you realise that nothing good ever comes easy; nor will it the next time you play either. [...] But the funny thing is, even though I have won a major – and I know not too many can say that, although there are so many great players in golf – I know that my game isn’t totally where I want it to be. I am constantly working on it and I will do so until the moment where I am totally satisfied. Although, that day may never come, because you should never be totally satisfied – you can always do better.
Asked how his early years carried into his professional career:
That experience of slowly building and progressing to where I want to be is exactly the essence of what makes a professional athlete. If you have things in your history that you can call upon, it makes you feel a lot better about the situations that are happening in your current life. [...] I think I have been progressing to a level which I am happy with. You can always do better, play better and achieve more, but if you aren’t happy or comfortable with your game or your progress, you won’t go forward.