Sep 21, 2018
As a kid growing up in the rural Midwest surrounded by cornfields, I was well supplied with lumber and the tools necessary to create things with that lumber. So, as soon as I saw Marty McFly in Back to the Future turn a handmade wooden scooter into a skateboard, I was hell-bent on creating my own skateboard by hand. I spent countless weekends carving a 1×6 board into the right shape for a skateboard and hours searching for the right rollerskate to disassemble and add to the bottom of my platform. It didn’t quite work as expected. I was not a very good skateboard maker or skateboarder, but I enjoyed the process and created my own product from scratch with “Skate or Die” as my battle cry.
So you might understand how elated I was when I got a chance to talk with skateboard legend and maker Tony Hawk about how he blazed his own path. His story is very different than mine but our themes and passions were aligned so many years ago – he just did it better. Quite a bit better.
Take a listen at this quick interview with skateboard legend, philanthropist and entrepreneur Tony Hawk on the latest episode of Somewhat Frank, where he shared how to blaze your own path. I caught up with Tony Hawk in Las Vegas where he was speaking at an accounting conference. We were connected by the great team behind the Chase Ink credit card.