Laird Hamilton: The Big Wave Surfer Who Built a +$10 Million Business Empire

There's a great friend of ours who's a woman judge from the south, and she always says to us, 'Invest in experiences.' Because if there's anything that you might be able to take from you when you do depart this earth, when you die, it may be that. I mean, you're not gonna take anything else.

You know what I say about innovation and ideas is it's just a new application of an old idea. For anyone to have what they would think would be an original thought at this point in humanity is insanity.

The greatest competition is life. You want to talk about the real game? ... Because all these other things, they're games. But the real game, the big game, is life.

None of us are what we do. We are who we are, and then we do these other things.

You know what my favorite term is? The victory through attrition ... The last guy standing. I'm all about that .... You can have your little wins... but I'm talking about, like, at the end when you're the only one left on the battlefield and everybody's laying on the ground, then you don't even have to be any good...

My mom had another good saying, which was 'The way God punishes you is he gives you what you asked for.' So, be careful what you ask for.

I realize that life is so temporary... and that you really don't have the kind of control you think you have.

My favorite description is somebody goes, well, where are you from or something? I go, well, I'm a human from Earth. So, I'm a human from Earth, and if you're something different, then we should probably sit down and have an incredible conversation.

You're always going to have somebody that can out-do you in something ... Our approach is more about you finding your own barriers and then trying to lift those up.

All the dumbest things I ever did were when I was drinking. All the stupidest things I've ever done, usually some alcohol was somehow involved in there—because like it says on the bottle, 'impairs your motor skills.'

I think both Gabby and I have always had to be creative in our career just because we were in such niche sports that it forced us to be a little bit more entrepreneurial in general.