Bankrate: You're 50 years old now and returning to skating. Do you ever sit back and think you are financially stable and don't have to go out there and prove yourself anymore?
Scott Hamilton: I could do that. It just depends on lifestyle. We all choose how we're going to live, and I think you can always do more. But I feel I need to set an example for my kids. I need to work. I need to show them a work ethic. I need to be healthy for them. I'm at an age now where I could be building my finances and investments toward retirement, but I kind of retired for five years. Skating and the industry have changed and the whole business model has gone completely upside down. But I've realized that throughout my life when my health has been challenged, skating has given me that health. So I need to be on the ice.
Bankrate: What does financial stability mean to you, especially since you had to quit skating in 1976 due to financial struggles?
Scott Hamilton: A couple from Chicago came to my rescue and started supporting my skating. They were amazing. Without them, I probably would have gone to college in 1976 and never would have been anything in skating. I would have been a junior national champion who had to stop skating because of financial reasons. This couple loved skating and didn't want to see someone with promise retire or quit because of financial inability when they had plenty of financial ability. They became very involved in my life, especially her. He passed away in 1979, but she was like a mom to me until she passed away a few years ago.
Bankrate: What age would you like to be at right now and why?
Scott Hamilton: I want to be 50. I'm enjoying life. I've seen so many people deal with the devil and that means trying to be something they're not, trying to be younger than they are, trying to deny where they are in their lives. Well, you know what, I'm 50, and what I do now at 50 is probably a lot different than what I did at 25. But I feel leaner, more energetic most of the time than I did before and, looking at my kids, I think, I'm doing the right things for them by being in the best shape I can be in. I need to be physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy.
Bankrate: What's easier for you to take, losing a skating competition or hearing the words "you're fired"?
Scott Hamilton: Oh gosh, "you're fired." What a great gift that was. That was awesome. But all that work went into a disappointing result. Getting off "Celebrity Apprentice" was the best thing that could have happened to me. When I went in, I took the high road. I wanted to make friends. I wanted to team build and wanted to lock elbows with my guys and win these tasks. But what I realized was that the whole nature of this game was to be the winner at all costs. I was so naïve. And Mr. Trump loves winners; he's a winner. He's self-made, pretty much. He went from having millions to hundreds of millions, but the show is about team shredding. The more I watched the people I got to know, and see how they were fighting for $250,000 for charity, to me that would have been toxic to my soul to stay longer than I did.
It was rough. I didn't have the skill sets to pull it off, whether it was being business savvy or having that killer-instinct personality to be able to throw every single one of those guys under the bus. I was embarrassed at getting dismissed so early but when I watched it with my wife, we both thought it was the best thing that could happen to me.