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.
Jim Storey · Founder, Surf Perimeters
Stop postponing the life you keep promising yourself.
Jim Storey was losing his love of the ocean to the commute. When his father died, he made himself a promise, and built a clothing brand around keeping it.
Asked what kicked him into action:
When my Dad died back in 2012, having being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease, it hit me like a freight train. I made a pledge to myself that I would make more of an effort to create that equilibrium now rather than wait until retirement – because we don’t know what’s around the corner. Sometimes I struggle to find the money and also work or family commitments may need to take precedence, but I will always do my best to fulfil that pledge. Because life is short. And if we are only surviving rather than living, then what’s the point?
Asked how he kept his balance as the brand grew:
As the brand started to attract interest, I guess it became more time-consuming and harder to manage my work-life balance. However, I never let it become all-encompassing and, throughout the journey so far, I’ve always prioritised my family, followed by the need to get out there over and above the business. [...] I’ve made a point of continuing to live the brand – underpinning the brand is that search for a more balanced lifestyle. And I am focused on making sure I don’t lose sight of that as I grow the business.
Asked what he would tell someone with an idea who fears failure:
Just do it! If you don’t go, you’ll never know. Take that first step. And if you’re worried about it not working out, then I would just do it in your own time, at your own pace, and see what happens. As soon as you tell people about what you’re doing, it creates pressure and expectation. Also, even if it fails, I can assure you that you will learn a huge amount having gone through the process. Not only about setting up a business, but also about what you’re good at and perhaps not so good at. The learning curve is steep, but as long as you don’t invest more than you can afford, the worst case isn’t actually that bad. You can walk away in the knowledge that you did actually try. And you will have equipped yourself with new capabilities and contacts as a result.