For years, I was Aiden from 24 Skateboards.
Not Aiden who happened to run a skateboard company. Aiden from 24. It was my whole identity. The thing I led with, the thing I built from nothing, the thing that made sense of all the weird creative energy I’d been carrying since I was a teenager with a camera at a skatepark.
We shipped to over 40 countries. We became the biggest skateboard brand in Australia. We outgrew the national governing body. That was real. We built that.
And then it wasn’t right anymore.
I won’t get into the details. What I’ll say is that there were disagreements, and there was a point where I knew staying meant becoming someone I didn’t want to be. So I walked away. No plan. No safety net. Nothing.
I remember taking a walk with two of my closest friends, Aaron and Chris. I told them I was lost. That I didn’t know who I’d be without it. That I didn’t know what came next or if anything did.
Aaron looked at me and said this is real, but it doesn’t define you. This too shall pass.
I held onto that harder than I’ve held onto most things.
Because here’s what I’ve learned about identity. When you tie yourself to a thing, a brand, a company, a role, a chapter, you stop being a person and start being a label. And labels can be taken. Companies fold. Partnerships end. Chapters close.
The person underneath all of it is still there.
Walking away from 24 felt like losing an anchor. Turns out it was just weight.
Losing that identity opened up space I didn’t know I needed. Space to become something I couldn’t have predicted. I went from skateboarding to esports to building HYPR. I found new passions, new rooms, new versions of myself I never would have met if I’d stayed.
Here’s the thing. I could launch a skateboard company tomorrow and there wouldn’t be a single second of lost time. I’d just get right back at it. Because the company was never the point. I was.