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.
Lee Westwood · Golfer
Pick the shot, trust it, and never change your mind.
Lee Westwood reached world number one without a major, and has finished runner-up in three of them. In his forties, he says the work is mostly in his head.
Asked whether he still believes he can win a major:
Oh of course – you always go into each tournament thinking you can play the perfect few rounds and take the trophy. If you didn’t feel that was possible I don’t think you’d bother turning up. [...] I do accept the fact age might be against me slightly now, but I’m pretty sure I’m still younger than the oldest golfer to win a Major [that was Julius Boros at the 1968 PGA, at the age of 48], and even when I pass that age, I am still confident I have it in me.
Asked what it will take to get over the line:
It will take me the same as it takes everyone else – it’s the perfect storm really, but I think you can only maintain a good round and turn that into a good tournament if the momentum is there, and if the belief is there. [...] Those are two elements that fuel each other, and they make even the most difficult shots appear quite easy. I think the players who can perform consistently at tournament-winning level really have a resilience to everything else that goes on around the circuit, because in reality the difference between the top-rankers and the lower-rankers is actually very little. [...] Ultimately, it’s about staying in that mindset long enough to stay competitive. That’s the challenge and that’s where a lot fall by the wayside.
Asked how he is working on his mental game:
I have to trust myself that it is the right shot that I am going to take on and then commit fully to that shot and remain totally focused and calm to make sure I play it the best I can. [...] You need to have a gameplan, work out what that is going to be and stick to that. So mentally that means making sure I keep things nice and simple, and never changing my mind once I step up to the ball.