Dan Lipka Web Log

Losing almost always feels bad, but it usually feels even worse when you didn’t trust your instincts and tried to win doing something unnatural. I am dubbing this situation, now and forever, as pulling a “Howard Dean”. When Howard Dean ran for President, he started as the maverick who wore his feelings on his sleeve and spoke his mind. After one of the first primaries didn’t go his way, he gave an animated, inspirational, and somewhat awkward speech to his supporters; however, the media and the public saw his rant and non-presidential and a little crazy and this is where Howard Dean decided to go against his natural personality and try to highlight his professionalism and civility. This coincidentally, in my opinion, significantly contributed to him getting crushed. I have to think that Howard Dean sits up at night thinking that if he was just true to his own personality he could be President now. This failure applies to all walks of life. If I am playing tennis and I go

I have been playing tennis since I was a little kid. When I first started, my uncle Kenny decided to make me a lefty. It is true that I write with my left hand, but my dominate strength hand is clearly my right hand. One of the reasons that the switch to lefty was made was that my lefty backhand (which is very similar to a righty baseball swing) was naturally great from the start. I would try to hit my backhand every shot, which was a more consistent and more powerful shot than anyone my age (or even a few years older) could produce. The downside was that my left arm was so weak that I couldn’t hit a decent forehand or serve. I was a completely one dimensional players, but it served me well as I was always a very good player. As I grew up I unsuccessfully tried many different forehands and serves; however, they all sucked. But with my backhand I was still likely to smack one right into my opponent’s gut (which helped me out as I played tennis all four years in High Scho