It’s All About the ?
This post could easily be called “how I continue to make my life difficult” and is meant to be a fun look on how a simple thing like having punctuation in a company name can lead to some funny situations.
The question mark in Where’s Your Heart? is significant. It’s meant to cause you to stop (or at least pause!) and ask yourself the question. To really stop, feel it, drop down into your heart…. that’s our mission. To help people find their hearts in their daily lives. So, about that question mark…
I wanted the name “Where’s Your Heart?” to get people to ask themselves the question. The first laugh was when my lawyer called and asked what word I wanted to end the company name with. What? Well, turns out the IRS wants non-profits to be called Foundation, or Club, or something out of about 10 or so choices. And, by the way, that something doesn’t include “Project” (which I would have liked). So, I picked Foundation.
So, you’ll often see me calling the company Where’s Your Heart? or WYH?, and even on twitter/facebook wyheart, but the real company name is Where’s Your Heart? Foundation.
And, please. For the non-Americans out there… we love you, but it’s not “Where is Your Heart?.” I know the contraction used in English is not common in all languages, but it sets the rhythm. Work with me on this, ok? Thanks.
Of course, WYH? is corrected by most spell-checkers to WHY?. Why? More like “why me?” But, funny. Until you retrain your spell checkers. And, while you’re in there fussing with the spell checkers, unset auto-cap after punctuation, or it’ll capitalize every word after the company name!
And, being a common misspelling of a common word, wyh.org wasn’t available as a web site name, so you’ll have to type out the full name until you bookmark it at http://wheresyourheart.org. I love the details like this though, in some weird way it keeps my mind thinking of the possibilities.
I never expected a URL with a question mark… but I would have liked an ATM card with one. Nope. As a techie, the bank process of opening the account with a company name that contained punctuation was fascinating. Clearly, not a use case they thought about when designing the banker’s interface. They couldn’t create the account with punctuation, but… a quick call determined that there was no reason the company name couldn’t contain the punctuation. So, we entered it wrong, and then opened a work request to change it on the back-end.
Of course, when you setup the account, it must populate other systems with the company information… I’ve been chasing down systems with the original non-punctuated name since I opened the account (the link goes to a previous blog post about my adventures with this from a technology perspective which I hope technology product managers out there can learn from). And, my first batch of checks was wrong, as was the ATM card. Though, the ATM’s a permanent thing, they don’t like punctuation on plastic I guess.
Those of you who know me, know I’m thorough. Back last June or so, I connected (via LinkedIn – very useful to find people you know who know people somewhere) with Yahoo! to ask how they dealt with the punctuation in their name. I found every time the sentence ended with the company name, it read like a question mark! They said, you have to double punctuate. Something like, “I would like to tell you about Where’s Your Heart?.” should have the period following the question mark.
Though, just because I’m neurotic, doesn’t mean those around me are. So, I’ve had to politely remind people to put the ? in there! Funny, really.
Finally, the question mark is so important, it’s become the centerpiece of our logo… along with the heart. I hope over time to drop the letters from the logo and only use the graphic (they’re both being trademarked). For now, I want to build some awareness of “the question.”
Well, I think this will be my last post for two weeks. I’m off to the Amazon and total disconnect from the modern world. If you’ve stumbled on this post, find out what I’m talking about at the Where’s Your Heart? Foundation web site, and become a fan on Facebook if you’re curious about our mission. While I’m away, ask yourself this different question…
Stop what you’re doing, and ask yourself the question. Drop into your heart, and feel it. Get present. Then, ask yourself where you were if you weren’t in your heart? What are you doing there?
Peace.
PS I’ve sketched out another post, not sure I’ll have time to write it up. But, our next post will be about the decision to do this as a non-profit and the statement I hope I’m making by doing so. Stay tuned.
