I had to learn the hard way. There was a blindness, without any education or will or drive. Everything I started in the beginning from skate shops to record labels to a million and one side hustles that I went in without knowing how I was going to do it, a lot of those ventures just went out of business.

In life some people trip and some fall but some take that trip and make a beautiful dance out of it.

Learning a [skateboard] trick is kind of like a puzzle; you have to keep trying, and trying, and trying, and adapting and changing, and adapting and changing, and finally it works.

In all aspects of life, it's always much funner when you surround yourself with people you enjoy being around.

All the coverage of skateboarding sucks. They couldn't care less when it comes to how skateboarding is portrayed. All I can do is portray it the right way when it comes to me. So skateboarders can look at what I'm doing and say, "Yeah, the only person doing it the right way is him." That's why Street Dreams was so important in being 100% true to skate culture. That's why the Wild Grinders are important in showing the different styles of street skating. That's why I get involved in building the skate parks. All I can do is show skateboarding the right way.

If I liked an idea, even slightly, I would throw some money at it. I've had a lot of random things not work out that people don't know about.

My gift is execution; when I decide I'm going to do something, I'll stop at nothing to do it. Along the way, you take a lot of risks and go for it, but you have to believe in it. You gotta believe in your idea, and lucky for me, I found a lot of success in that.