What happened in this episode?
Tony Hawk joins My First Million to talk through the mindset and business decisions behind his skateboarding career and the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise. Hawk describes starting the Tony Hawk Foundation in 2002 after seeing a shortage of skateparks and says it has contributed to “close to a thousand” projects, often using early grants to help push local approvals. He also reflects on his competitive approach: an obsession with learning new tricks rather than chasing accolades, and an ability to “not see failure” when committing to high-risk attempts.
On his most famous trick, Hawk recounts that he had never landed the 900 in practice before completing it in 1999, and says he believed he was off-air when he finally rode away. The conversation then turns to the origins of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater: Hawk says early pitches to Nintendo and publishers in 1997 drew scepticism that skateboarding was popular enough to support a game. He recalls Activision later offering to buy out his future royalties for $500,000, which he declined. Hawk describes the scale of the franchise’s peak by recalling a later $4.5 million royalty cheque when multiple titles were simultaneously in the sales top 10.
Hawk also outlines his wider business activity, including Birdhouse Skateboards, licensing, a production company, speaking engagements, and angel investments he says were facilitated by Silicon Valley contacts.
