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.
Scott Eastwood · Actor
His father could have made it easy. He made him audition.
Clint Eastwood's son does his own stunts, trains Muay Thai and lives by the sea in San Diego, well away from Hollywood. The old-school lessons came from home.
Asked how his father's no-nonsense philosophy shaped him:
He was someone who expected you to earn your own way in life. He could have made my life very easy but he knew that that would have been the worst thing he could have done. No-one ever gave him anything when he was making his way in life and he expects you to have the same attitude. My dad believes that the only way you really learn about yourself is when you’re forced to work hard and deal with adversity on your own. Even when I would ask him if I could work on some of his films, he would still make me audition for every part.
Asked whether the comparison with his father still weighs on him:
I’m very proud to be his son. He’s always been a great role model for me and he taught me to stand on my own and never expect handouts from him. My dad is very old-fashioned and old-school when it comes to discipline. He taught me basic things like the value of hard work, dedication to whatever you choose to do in life, and to stand up for yourself and be a man. When I was younger, I didn't always appreciate that, but it made me much tougher and more self-reliant. You also learn more self-respect if you’re forced to make your own way and not expect favours from people.
Asked what he does beyond the gym:
I’ve always loved surfing and over the years I’ve gotten into Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu. I love pushing myself whenever I’m training in the gym or doing any kind of sport – it clears your head. I once lived in Australia and that was one of the best experiences of my life. Spending time there got me to appreciate the beauty of being out in nature and living very simply. That’s why I’ve been living in San Diego and not LA for a long time now, because I have this feeling of freedom that comes from not being so close to the film industry and all the bullshit that comes with the business.