Adam Dorfman & DMC Atlanta

You're never too Young to Give Back! I clearly remember being about eight years old, and my father,  +Larry Dorfman , taking me to the Atlanta Union Mission to help prepare food for the homeless.  The morning of the visit, I remember being annoyed - I wanted to watch cartoons and hang out in my PJ's after a "hard week at school." When we arrived, my complaints quickly stopped. I looked around and saw what I had never seen before - people who were grateful just to have a roof over their head and food to eat. Whatever struggles we may had faced as a family paled in comparison to the day to day lives of the people around me. I am fortunate to have been raised in a family that, as they became successful, they stayed focused on giving back at every level. I saw a great example of charity, philanthropy, gratitude, and humility, and I vowed to pay it forward. At  +DMC Atlanta , giving back to the community is a deeply-rooted core value - something so ingrained that, ...

I have always considered myself to be a "realist." I like to think that, whether times are good or bad, I have the capacity to rise above, take an unbiased view, and give accurate feedback on my own situation. My go-to thought process was that overly-optimistic people, those who constantly saw the glass as half-full, those who believed in "The Secret" and read self-help books - were only like that because they either were too stupid to know that bad things happen or too oblivious to care. As it turns out, there is a very fine line between realism and pessimism, and, if you're not careful, you will end up on the wrong side of the line more times than not. My grandfather, Bob Krasnoff, once told me - "Worry is the misuse of imagination." (I'm assuming he heard it somewhere, but, since he's my grandfather and one of my mentors, I'm giving him the credit for the quotation.)  I'm not sure why, but, when he said this - I took it on a...