History of Why Not? Foundation

Ideas.  All of a sudden, they come into your head. You give them some time and then you let them go.

Sometimes they are so fleeting and their passage through your head is so brief, that they never take shape. But they existed. Sometimes they return. An idea can become a project. A project that can become reality. There is always a story behind any reality. To tell the story, you have to go back to the beginning: to that original idea that was the cause of everything that came after.

Furthermore, there is always someone who was the bearer of that original idea.

This is how this story begins: with Pablo and his idea to create a foundation. It was one of those ideas that comes back, that does not content itself with you letting it pass. The sea, the mountain and aeroplanes; sometimes they give you those blank spaces where ideas come to light. It has to be said that this idea was grown in the head of someone very special.  Because of this, before it had a body, our foundation had a soul.

The hope that has accompanied Why Not? since the beginning is its greatest virtue. Our founder provided it with such a strong dose of hope that nothing could stand it. Besides the hope, this idea came with a true need to be shared. In this day and age, when people often try to leave the most difficult tasks to other people, when an idea appears that is so imbued with others’ need for survival, it becomes almost impossible to resist becoming part of it.

One day when I was returning from Gijón to Madrid, I received an SMS from Pablo which said: “Ideas for the name of a foundation.” But, “a foundation?” We had to know more to christen it. We asked him, who will create it? What projects will it have?... He replied: “I still don’t know, we’ll decide that later. For now, we are going to give it a name.” After weighing up a great many possibilities (the girls were very productive in this), we had three options for “Pablo’s foundation” (we still did not know that it would also be ours). Four hundred kilometres later, we replied with another SMS with the three finalists for the name. One of them was Why Not? With the clarity that distance sometimes yields, now that time has passed, I think that giving Why Not? a name before it existed, helped it to exist. Giving it the name, we provided it with a body, although it still did not have a heart.

Some weeks later, at a dinner at home with friends, the heart of Why Not? began to beat.

Before continuing with the story, I am going to make a small digression to talk about this friends, because they have been an important part of this story. Although they might sound like a band from the 80s, they are a group of friends. A very real and active friendship. Being together gives us all so much, that we make an effort to organise these meetings. And each meeting makes us closer friends.

And it was at that dinner that we got excited about the idea and we turned it into a project. Everyone contributed, added more ideas. Obstacles appeared, but we instantly negotiated them. I think that dinner was key and it gave Pablo the necessary determination to turn the project into reality.

Pablo has been like a pacemaker on this project. He has guaranteed that the heart does not stop beating. It is not worth it sometimes beating very fast, if it later stops. It is a basic condition that a heart never stops beating.

It was decided that we were going to meet once a month to “make decisions”. When we were together at these meetings (which took place at our homes, and some of our homes are many kilometres apart), everything seemed possible. We had to do one thing, to find out another. Someone took care of this, someone else took care of that. The heart of Why Not? was beating strong.

When each person returned to their reality (family, work, problems…), we had our unshakeable pacemaker that kept the heart beating. Pablo sent us mail with fantastic summaries of the meetings, where what you had to do was marked in red; he sent you SMS where he used all his charms reminding you that you hadn’t done your homework (this piece has cost him many of these messages); he fixed the next meetings…  Always with his capacity for managing that, bit by bit, everything carried on, that it did not stop. 

For a year and a half we have met regularly and in these meetings, everything has been decided. Every meeting had its agenda with all the topics to deal with. Agreements, disagreements, preferences, petitions…and, finally, decisions. All of it always accompanied with lots of laughter.

At last, Why Not? begins its journey. It begins with enthusiasm, with power, with many proposals and projects. It maintains the hope and enthusiasm to share that it was born with. We want people to join us on this journey who are as excited as we are!

Why not? Why Not?