There’s a lot of talk in the MC world about respect—earning it, giving it, demanding it. But if there’s one group that often gets overlooked or underestimated, it’s the Prospects. The patch-in-progress. The guys wearing the bottom rocker without the center. The ones doing grunt work, standing back in church meetings, showing up first and leaving last.
Some people think the Prospect period is a joke. A hazing ritual. A chance to flex on someone lower in the pecking order. But let’s set something straight—if you’re laughing at a Prospect, you’re laughing at the very process that made you or your brothers who you are.
Prospecting isn’t a formality—it’s a crucible. A testing ground. It’s the stage where a man proves he can be trusted with more than a vest and some patches. He’s proving he’s got the grit, the loyalty, and the heart to ride shoulder-to-shoulder with people who’d take a bullet for him. And if he makes it through? That patch on his back will mean more than most people can understand.
What’s worse than outsiders mocking the Prospect stage? Brothers or patch holders forgetting where they came from. No one skips the dirt. Everyone who wears the patch the right way has earned it the hard way. There’s no fast track, no shortcuts, and no mercy for those who forget that.
When you see a Prospect busting his ass at a run, running errands, or standing at the edge of the circle while patched brothers talk club business, you should see someone carrying the weight of tomorrow’s brotherhood on his back. Every task he’s given, every order he follows—it’s all part of building him into someone who might one day have to watch your back on a dark road at 3am.
To laugh at that? That’s weak. That’s small. That’s forgetting what this life is about.
Every Prospect has the potential to be the kind of brother you’d go to war with. Or the kind who picks you up off the asphalt when you’ve laid it down. Or the guy who shows up without being asked when your world falls apart. The process—the hard grind—is what makes that kind of man.
So if you see a Prospect struggling, don’t mock him. Don’t clown him. Remember that you’ve been there—or should have been. Show him how to stand tall in it. Educate him, mentor him, challenge him—but always with the understanding that he’s doing something not everyone has the stones to attempt.
Respect the Prospect.
Because if you can’t respect the process, you don’t deserve the patch.