Sacrificing for Change

In his talk on Paris Hilton, Adam Kramer explains the unlikely influence that the hotel heiress, business woman and TV personality has had over his life. He starts out by explaining the career goals he set for himself as a child, and how these changed as he matured. At one point, he realized that he really wanted to be a news anchor, so he went to college for journalism and during his time there, took on two unpaid internships at the same time -- which caused him to go into debt because he could no longer support himself.

At the end of one of his internships, he was offered his dream job at a network television station. Despite how well his career was going, he says that he was never given a sense of completeness. This really hit him when he was about to report on a local murder, but was interrupted when his producers told him that they needed him to go to LA to cover Paris Hilton's release from jail for a DUI charge. At this point he truly realized that even though he was doing the job he always dreamed of having, he wasn't making the difference in the world that he wanted.

At this point, he gave up his career as a reporter and moved back home to regroup. He channeled his experience and became a documentary creator, which eventually led him to his position as the Executive Vice President of Strategy for Switch, a company that's described as a "data center ecosystem," and prides itself on facilitating transformative change. With his talk on Paris Hilton, Adam Kramer explains the importance of holding onto one's core values, no matter what luxuries are offered by success.