Author: Dan Clouser

A question that I often asked my staff when I was running the BIG Vision Foundation was, “What is your ‘Why?’”

I loved hearing their answers.  Why did they get up every morning and come to work?  What was their motivation?  For many years, I had a photograph that hung on the wall of one of our concession stands. In was a picture of some of the kids in our organization with the words, “This is Why” written above the photograph.  That was my reminder every morning as to why I did what I was doing.  I absolutely loved what I was doing back then, so most days I didn’t need a reminder.  However, even the best jobs in the world don’t come without their bad days.  So, when one of those bad days might crop up, it was easy for me to be able to remind myself what all of the early mornings, late nights and 80-plus hour work weeks were for.

Back then, our, “Why” is something that we talked about as a staff almost daily.  Ironically, it isn’t something that I’ve given much thought about since we’ve been on the road.

One of the objectives of this journey was to be able to help tell the stories of the people that we would meet on the road.  One of the things that I loved was hearing my mom tell the stories of the people that she met on her journey.  I found it absolutely amazing that people that she may have only spent a few minutes with as well as those that she may have spent weeks or months with could make such a great impact on her life.  Some of those people she stayed in contact with, others she didn’t, but the impacts were great in either case.  She impacted them as well.  I know this from people who I never met showing up at her memorial service and telling us what she meant to them.