Rob Dyrdek [skactorpreneur]

By: Julian Chavez | August 20, 2009 | Ten by Ten

Tell us about someone or something we probably don’t know about, but we should.
I don’t think people understand, from my perspective, how uneducated America is about how illegal skateboarding is.
What’s a good rumor that you’ve heard about yourself?
Of course, that I have had a cocaine problem, but outside of that, no one really had rumors that I can think of. I am not in the rumor mill.
What has been your most challenging project personally or professionally?
I think for me, it had to be just diving into doing a feature film — the writing, financing and producing. I learned every lesson in the book, every hard way. I just jumped right in and paid the price of the most vicious learning curve ever.
How would the 13-year-old you feel about the person you are now?
I feel like I am pretty in line with how I was at 13. I feel like I was running things and dating hot little chicks. I was already sponsored, hot, winning amateur contests and getting into magazines. There is no way a 13-year-old boy could wrap his head around living in L.A. and being on a TV show — there is no way.
What is your biggest professional failure?
Without a doubt it would be trying to do an underground Hip-Hop record label. I learned a lot about “who you go into business with” the hard way.
On average, how many hours of sleep do you get a night?
Depends on how hard I am running, but probably about six or seven hours. Six is probably solid. I get up at 7 every morning, and I try to go to bed at 12 — unless you meet a young new girl that has you partying until the break of dawn and sleeping late. It pulls your whole schedule out.
What was your closest brush with death?
When I was a little kid, my seatbelt broke on one of those amusement rides that spins faster and faster and goes sideways. When it broke, I flew out and caught the bar. I knew if I were to let go, I would surely die, and of course I held on and they brought the machine down. I cried a little bit. And here we are now.
To what extent does money influence your career choices?
I would like to think that it is a 50-50 thing. You know, I am not driven by money, but I like making it. I prefer creating and doing stuff that has never been done, and I think that drives me more, but I try to do it in a manner so that it will make me money.
What’s the strangest number you have programmed into your phone?
I have the dude who wrote that fucking book, The Secret, about the key to life and success. God, there is so much in here.
How will you spend this evening?
I will probably spend this evening on the phone with this girl for six hours like a high school boy. That is the way I have been running for the last week.