3.01 Economics - Tony Hawk

Tony Hawk was born on May 12, 1968 in Carlsbad, California. During his early childhood he was hyperactive and hard on himself. His self-frustration led his parents to have him psychologically evaluated at school, which they found out that Tony had an IQ of 144. The teachers recommended putting Tony into advanced classes. Soon Tony got into skateboarding, which his parents supported since it served as an outlet to Tony's great amounts of energy. At age fourteen he became a professional skateboarder.

Tony has been the world champion of skateboarding for a consecutive twelve years, according to the National Skateboarding Association. He has also one over a hundred pro contests by the time he was twenty three, being in first place in seventy three contest and at second place in nineteen contests. He helps kids world wide with their self-confidence, constructs skate parks in low-income neighborhoods, and is one of the most influential skateboarders of all time -- even having his own brand of clothing and series of video games.

Tony did not have to alter any of his plans throughout his career. Despite his friends and peers going onto more traditional pursuits he stuck with skateboarding. Even to this day he still is in the skateboarding business. By reading more about Tony, it's inspiring that he doesn't want other kids to be underprivileged and not be too hard on themselves. Never beat yourself up too much or you'll never get anywhere.

HUNT

• H -- When Tony first started skateboarding he didn't think that he'd be one of the most influential people of all time. But the more he got into it, the more he wanted to do skateboarding.
• U -- One of the main problems was the sudden death of skateboarding in 1991. At the time Tony had to rely on a five dollar-a-day allowance from Taco Bell when working there.
• N -- He sponsored himself with Birdhouse Projects, a skateboard company made by his friend. The first few years were rough, then skateboarding suddenly spiked back into popularity again. Tony also was making endorsement deals with other companies as well, including his own brand of clothing, Hawk Clothing, and Activision, a video game publisher that spawned a whole franchise of Tony Hawk video games.
• T -- Tony did skateboarding just for fun and as an outlet for his tremendous amount of energy. He didn't think he'd be famous, but he still kept on doing skateboarding out of love for the sport.

Sources Cited.

• "Home of the Birdman." Official Tony Hawk. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 May 2017. .