On Being Lefty

I have always been proud to be lefty. For some strange reason, I feel that being born a lefty contributed to the person I am today...which sounds totally ridiculous I know. But I think there is some weird connection between which hand you use to eat and who you are.

And I say born a lefty because, despite many attempts by my parents to reprogram me to become righty, it never happened.

As a kid, my parents would stick my kid-sized chopsticks in my right hand and without fail I would switch after two unsuccessful bites back to using my left hand. (They gave up after much frustration fearing that any harder methods of reprogramming would completely screw up my brain and render me more confused than I am today.)

Same with writing. Actually there were two points in my life when an attempt was made to reprogram my writing hand. Once as a kid during 1st grade and then once during high-school. Of course at the age of 16, my parents and I should have known that I had already reached the point of now return of writing lefty. I think I wanted to give hand conformity one more try. But conformity takes a back seat when your penmanship looks more like bad graffiti rather than legible handwriting.

So I think I can solidly say...I was born a lefty.

But back to on being lefty.

I do believe lefties think differently than righties. I mean you've probably seen this test before...

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,22556281-661,00.html

And though I think we all have the capability to be either left brained or right brained, I'm sure that there are some people who are more one side than the other naturally.

Perhaps it's the lefty connection but I've always felt a sense of excitement when I meet another lefty. It's like I wonder what story they are hiding or what talents they have. I think lefties in general are odd but interesting people.

Take for instance the GMAT instructor I currently have at manhattan GMAT. You would think your typical instructor is someone who's gone through the motions of B-School or worked in the financial services industry but nope. My instructor is a film producer. Never went to B-school. And is very outspoken about not knowing or understanding why people work in the finance industry. He is also a lefty.

I've seen quite a few studies about lefties being Type A personality and righties being Type B personality. And that lefties are better in careers that involve "doing this" and righties are better in careers "doing that". Well here is my version on lefties.

I'm thinking about 5 lefties that I know (that's quite a lot I think). And here are 10 things that come to mind when I think about them:

1. They are mentally strong.
2. Open minded.
3. Creative thinkers.
4. I think they would make bad accountants.
5. I think they would hate being accountants.
6. Genuine.
7. Are careful about relationships.
   
8. Can be weird but fun.
   
9. Don't always look at the facts to make decisions.
   
10. Intense.

Okay, perhaps I should put more negative things in here. But really, are there any? (Just kidding. I am sure there are.) In any case. Lefties are a special breed (though righties rock too!!).

I just read through my post and I don't think I really addressed how being a lefty contributed to me being me. Oh well. Perhaps this is a deeper discussion than I initially thought. For the next post I suppose.