Tony Hawk: Harnessing Passion, Drive & Persistence for Lifelong Success

If you saw me skate when I first started skating, there was no way you'd think that I was natural or that I had any future in it. I was all gangly. I was all over the place. I was eating shit left and right ... I wasn't good. I wasn't a natural.

I've seen people that are naturals, and I've seen how they don't have that drive. They don't have the discipline. And it's not wasted, but they... don't take advantage of what they have naturally.

I turned pro when I was 14. By the time I was fifteen and a half... I had $600 in my bank account, and I used that to buy a Honda Express moped. For a year and a half, that was my earnings was $600.

When I approach a new trick... my thought process is I have all the pieces to this. I've done every bit of it. I've done the first part of the trick in another form. I've done the second part... usually in some other basic way. And then the landing is, well, the landing is from whatever that is.