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.
Ivan Lintin · Isle of Man TT winner
Forget the last corner. The next one arrives at 180mph.
A factory maintenance fitter and village firefighter who has won the Isle of Man TT twice, racing inches from stone walls at close to 200mph.
Asked how he prepares for the danger:
I never think of the worst-case scenario and personally you don’t go out thinking about crashing. It does happen, unfortunately and sometimes when you’re pushing that hard, then anything can happen. You must line up fully confident in your own ability that you can go out and do as best as you can. If something goes wrong mechanically then it’s something that is completely out of your hands. There’s no point worrying about that, or the bike, or the track. The only thing you need to worry about is yourself.
Asked about the hardest race of his career:
The Macau Grand Prix. It’s in Hong Kong and it’s both mentally and physically challenging because of the heat. It’s 30°C, 100% humidity, which us British aren’t used to and the track is Armco lined. You can’t make any mistakes. It took me three years racing there for it to turn into a race track, as opposed to just riding round it. The first two years I was just too scared. This year it was more comfortable, and we finished in 10th place.
Asked whether speed takes bravery or judgement:
I suppose its assessing what your bike is capable of and what you personally are capable of. Certainly The 1000cc superbikes do scare me. I have an active fear because they are big, powerful tools. I can do 129mph TT laps on them, but the leaders can do 133mph on them. It doesn’t seem a lot but it’s those little margins that count. It’s all about little steps and going faster in every practice, then taking that into qualifying and the race. That’s all you can do. If you don’t win then you go onto the next race.