By Hook or By Crook

“If you don’t risk consequence, you don’t get to shape anything.”
– Taleb’s Principle

The phrase “by hook or by crook” comes from medieval England, where wood was as precious as gold. Fuel to warm homes, cook food, and build.

But the forests weren’t for everyone. They belonged to the crown and the nobles. The peasants — the people who needed wood the most — weren’t free to gather as they pleased. Instead, they were granted a narrow mercy. A poxy little law called Estovers.

What did it mean?
It meant scraps.

·       Fallen branches, dead wood, bits of timber just big enough to patch a roof or stoke a small fire.

·       No axes. No climbing. No cutting down trees. You could only take what you could hook from the ground or pull down with a shepherd’s crook.

That’s where the phrase was born: by Hook, or by Crook.
Take what you can reach. Survival within boundaries designed by someone else.

It was control disguised as kindness.
Enough scraps to keep you alive, but not enough to rise.

The Scraps

Little has changed.

Back then it was firewood. Today, it’s wages, algorithms, access. We’re still handed scraps, rationed by invisible systems. Enough to exist. Never enough to build freedom.

·       Wages cover bills, but not ownership.

·       Education gives degrees but buries you in debt.

Scraps. Modern Estovers.
The forest has new names, but it’s still fenced off.

The Equaliser

Every generation has its equaliser. A lever for the ordinary person to tilt the scales — if they’re willing to risk consequence.

Our grandparents had migration. Leaving everything behind, with nothing but hope in a suitcase, they reset family destinies.

Our parents had real estate. A single modest wage could buy a three-bedroom house on a quarter-acre block. More than a home, it became a building block of wealth. A door that slammed shut behind them.

Today, it’s the internet. An open door — or at least a door cracked wide enough for anyone to slip through. Information at warp speed. Distribution without middlemen. Entire industries built by people who never waited for permission.

The tools may change. The entry fee doesn’t.

·       Courage.

·       Commitment.

·       Consistency.

“On one given night, if you’ve worked hard enough, if you’ve dreamed big enough — you could get in the ring and make the world fair again.”
– Teddy Atlas

Crabs and Elevators

The system has another trick: it doesn’t just control from above. It teaches us to control each other.

The crabs who drag. They scoff at ambition. Applaud you at the bottom but question when you ascend. Crabs in a bucket. The minute one tries to crawl out, the others drag it back in.

After all, if not everyone is willing to do what it takes to make it out, then maybe all of us deserve the boiling pot.

Or.

Once you get to the next floor, send the elevator down like someone once did for you. Solitude builds clarity, but isolation rots it. Curate inputs to protect the clarity and momentum. The anti-noise means only proven results and paid expertise make it past the sound barrier.

Let the bottom feeders compete while the climbers collaborate.

The Hook and the Crook

“It is not the violence that sets a man apart. It is the distance he is prepared to go.”
– Forrest Bondurant

The system isn’t broken. It was built to funnel rewards and keep others chasing scraps. That hasn’t changed since the days of Estovers. We’re still here, bending for survival.

I don’t stand above this, lecturing like I’ve cracked the code. I’m still learning where the edges bend and the walls give way. Where you can slip through without setting off alarms.

The rules can’t be broken without consequence. But they can be bent, leaned on and tested without fear. I don’t have a map. I’m stumbling through the same forest, but I’ve seen others who walked ahead — they never came back the same.

·       Build relationships before you need them.

·       Network without shame.

·       Pivot when reality smashes your perfect plan.

·       Work for free when necessary.

·       Take rejections as reps in the tank, not defeat.

·       Outwork those who won’t sacrifice. Outmanoeuvre those who play it safe.

If the rules are set in stone and all we have access to are scraps….then fuck it.

We’ll bend the rules until they creak and gather enough scraps to build our own system. We’ll be unapologetic in this pursuit — because there’s no nobility in suffering for someone else’s comfort.

No matter what the crabs tell you, there’s no virtue in misery. Living a life you don’t want instead of building one you do.

Be prepared for the lonely chapters, where self-doubt creeps in the shadows. For the noisy chapters, when your inner bitch is the loudest. For the death of the old self and habits that don’t serve the mission.

Whatever it looks like, be ready to go the distance.

By any means necessary.

By hook or by crook.