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Michael Amin is a serial entrepreneur, professional investor, and active philanthropist based in Los Angeles, California. Michael came to the United States in 1976 as a 17-year-old, whereupon he attended college, earning a degree in business. While still a student, he managed his family’s apartment complex, overseeing its conversion into condominiums and selling them, which contributed to his then-burgeoning interest in real estate.
After graduating from Cal State Northridge, Michael Amin started QuickPix, a one-hour photo development company. Although he initially had plans to franchise the business, the market quickly became saturated, and he decided to pursue other ventures.
In 1988, Michael followed in his family’s footsteps and began to farm pistachios as a vocation. He later founded Primex World Inc., an investment firm responsible for managing his pistachio orchards, and other investments. Primex World also deals in private equities, and Michael Amin remains the firm’s CEO.
In 2002, he created Maximum Difference Foundation (MDF), a charitable organization focusing on using advertising to educate parents on effective parenting, alongside supporting healthcare, environmental preservation, education, criminal reform, and humanitarian causes through partnerships with various organizations. Recently, Michael Amin has guided the organization to coalesce around a new cause: encouraging the parents of high-achievers to prioritize their children’s happiness in addition to academic goals and future career success.
Q: What inspired you to create Maximum Difference Foundation?
Michael Amin: After I’d reached a certain level of success with my businesses, I felt it was incumbent on me to do my part in creating a better future, and I thought the best way to do that was through charity. But I didn’t just want to write a few checks and then forget about it. I wanted to make the maximum difference for good in society that I possibly could—which is where MDF’s name came from. I knew I would have to consolidate my resources into a single official entity, and then recruit a group of dependable and like-minded individuals to assist me in targeting worthy causes. I’m pleased to say that, starting in 2002, we managed to start doing exactly that.
Q: Did you have any specific goals or accomplishments in mind when you started the foundation?
Michael Amin: The most accurate answer to that question is yes and no. Yes, I did have a few things in mind. I wanted to work with Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders, as well as a few other well-established organizations that I knew were already engaged in important work. I wanted to help preserve culture and protect the environment. But also no, at least in the sense that I wanted to keep an open mind and listen to proposals from new and perhaps unexpected parties. I wanted to keep the overall mission of MDF unconfined to a single issue or set of issues, and instead have it work to make the maximum difference in any number of areas.
Q: Is there a particular cause that MDF is currently focused on that you can share with our readership?
Michael Amin: Over the last few months, I’ve become intensely interested in the mental health and well-being of high-achieving children and teenagers. They will eventually be in charge of large companies, international institutions, and even entire nations. As such, the choices they make in the future will have lasting repercussions both to the human race and the planet itself, and it’s in everyone’s best interest that their psychological state be sound and free from unneeded baggage.
Q: Why pick this issue specifically?
Michael Amin: The ultimate point of philanthropy is to try to make the world a better place for future generations. So, I took some time to really think about the best way for MDF to do that. The conclusion I came to was that this is the issue that, if addressed properly and early enough, could serve to have the biggest knock-along effect. A dollar spent on the mental health of high achievers in the present might save a rainforest in the future, or maybe even prevent an unnecessary war.
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