hope it works .’ But I was definitely right there in every part of the process . I ’ ve held that very dearly because I wanted to represent skateboarding well , not just my own name .”
6 . DON ’ T GIVE UP
Before connecting with Activision , Hawk was approached by a PC developer who ’ d created an engine for skateboarding . He teamed up with the developer , and they pitched the idea of creating a new skateboarding video game to a lot of console manufacturers and software developers , but no one bit . “ It was very discouraging ,” Hawk said . “ In fact , some were outright insulting .” After a year of hearing “ no ,” the developer got frustrated and gave up . “ I remember this distinctly ,” Hawk recalls . “ He told me , ‘ Look , I ’ ve got to go make a living . But I sense that because we were taking these meetings , your name is out there in the ether of video games , and so if someone were to do a game , they probably want to call you .’”
Hawk was doubtful , but less than a year later , Activision called and said , “ We heard you want to do a game .” Hawk took a meeting with Activision , and after trying a game they were working on , he signed a deal on the spot . One year later , the Tony Hawk ’ s Pro Skater video game was released .
7 . WHEN THINGS ARE HARD , DIG DEEP time , skating was in such a lull . But I also felt like I had already seen skateboarding come and go twice in my lifetime . It ’ s bound to come again . I hope it ’ s bound to come back around again . And when it does , we will have established ourselves as one of the best brands because we have one of the best teams . We have a unique direction . We have good aesthetics , and we have set ourselves apart from the rest of the industry . I felt pretty good about that . It took a lot longer than I thought . Through those years , I ended up selling that house for what I owed on it , moving back into the other smaller place I lived in during high school , and living off peanut butter and jelly , Top Ramen , and Taco Bell for probably three years , all while trying to keep the business afloat and keep the team happy . We would drive across the country to skate shops , skate in their parking lots , beg them for money for gas and food , and maybe a hotel that we ’ re all going to share in one room , then go on to the next one . But in those days , it was a struggle financially , but also , we still got to skate , so we were kind of still living the dream . It was on a much smaller scale ; it was much rawer . There were no trainers or anything . I remember distinctly one of our skaters fractured his wrist . We went to the hospital , and it was going to take hours for him to be seen , so we just drove on to the next city , and he figured it out and wore a wrist brace the whole time . It was just stuff like that .”
His passion has always been his primary driver . When he started , skating was beginning to die . There was no money to be made in the industry , so he was in it for the love of it . However , as success came , he made a lot of money fast and furiously , earning enough to buy a house when he was only 17 years old and a senior in high school . But when the industry crashed when he was only 24 years old , he thought his career was over . Not only was he considered old for a skater but the industry also completely fell away . Because he loved it so much , he dug deep and figured out how to keep his dream alive .
“ I thought my career as an actual skateboarder was starting to fade , and I wanted to stay in the industry because I just loved it ,” Hawk said . “ I loved the culture . I loved the business of it . I loved what it brought to me through my formative years . So I wanted to stay in it . I also wanted to create a team much in the way that Peralta created the Bones Brigade . So I chose to start a company and took out the equity from my second home to start the business . This seems crazy because , at the