Why Do You Do What You Do?

Really, why do you do what you do? Ask the question of yourself. It is harder than you think. Why? Because likely you want to get it “right.” And there are no answers. And it gets to the core of everything. That is, whatever everything is.

I believe, we Are the summation of what we Do. Answering the question can be revealing and renewing.

Social entrepreneur extraordinaire Tony Deifell came up with the idea of the Why Do You Do What You Do? public arts project when he realized he didn’t have an answer when asked. Having started several nonprofits, he was doing, doing, and more doing. Perhaps, like many of us, he took the Why for granted. When asked, late one night, he struggled through an answer, and then he come upon an idea, WDYDWYD? (a cool acronym that stands for Why Do You Do What You Do?).

Tony calls the project a “worldwide community-art project to answer the simple question by combining and image and text in a simple way.”

This project is one of the first things we do with our new fellows. It gets to the heart of what we believe is one of the most important attributes of social entrepreneurs – self-awareness.  Fellows from 2007 and 2008 are photographed with their WDYDWYD? Sign. Check them out on our homepage and in the fellow photo galleries.

Echoing Green staff complete the project as well. Here is mine from this year

and last year.

Why don’t you do it as well?  You can upload your own photos at the WDYDWYD website.  Leave a comment here and let us know you particpated!