Arman's Antics (#021)
Useful tidbits from 7-14 February 2023
Hey everyone,
Coming to you live from Austin, Texas. Here is your weekly dose of Arman’s Antics, a list of what I’m creating and exploring.
No new subscribers to welcome this week (176 total). That gives me a moment to thank each of you for having been here for at least two editions of Arman’s Antics. I don’t take your attention for granted. Thank you.
Essay I wrote last week
The easy thing about hard things (#039). I’m fed up with society convincing us that we should double down on what comes easy and ignore what comes hard to us.
“Oh, I’m not a natural persuader, so I can’t sell.” That’s what I thought before starting my first sales job. 10 months and 20,000 cold calls later, something surprising happened. I started to sell. In short, hard things become easy when you do enough repetitions. What hard thing have you been avoiding?
Book I’m rereading
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca. Seneca was a famous Roman philosopher. This short book holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the two books that accompanied me on my four month (solo) backpacking trip to Southeast Asia in 2019. I found myself buried in the pages between teaching English to Cambodian kids and doing a three day silent meditation retreat in Thailand.
It sounded like it could have been written yesterday. But I learned that it was over two thousand years old!
I’ll leave you with one of those book dropping lines that I’ve highlighted, starred, underlined, etc. to make sure it’s seared into my memory:
“Set aside now and then a number of days during which you will be content with the plainest of food, and very little of it, and with rough, coarse clothing, and will ask yourself, ‘Is this what one used to dread?’ It is in times of security that the spirit should be preparing itself to deal with difficult times…”
Underwear I’m wearing
Men's Go Buck Naked Performance Boxer Briefs. I bought my first pair over ten years ago and nothing was the same. They cost about $20 back then which was way more than I could afford. Most of my other pairs made me sad when I threw them on. But I found myself always looking forward to the day when it was their turn in the underwear rotation.
I decided to do something drastic. I threw away all my sad underwear and ordered enough pairs of these bad boys to have one for each day of the week. Now I get to look forward to putting on my underwear everyday! Such a simple hack, but one I wish I would’ve done long ago. What’s your favorite pair of underwear? Only keep those in your drawer.
Successful person I’m checking out
Alex Hormozi. This guy is fascinating. My dad first introduced me to him because he’s Persian like us. But more importantly, he’s legit.
Long story short, he opened a few businesses in Southern California in his early 20’s (including a few gyms and marketing agencies), failed miserably for a while, then succeeded wildly, and now he and his wife Leila are worth over $100M. Oh and he’s only 33 and his wife is 30. And if you aren’t jealous yet, he’s also jacked beyond belief.
I judge all advice givers by one criteria. How good is their free stuff? And his youtube channel alone has provided me with more value than a four five year business degree did from my beloved University of Georgia. He holds strong beliefs and will rub some people the wrong way but he articulates himself in a way that makes it hard to disagree with what he says. Now will you excuse me while I go learn how to business?
Random thought
Maybe more brick and mortar businesses would succeed if they hung up signs that said, “Soliciting is welcome here”.
That’s it for this edition of Arman’s Antics. Isn’t it crazy we’ve been at this for 21 weeks already? Again, thank you to all 176 of you who have (willingly) agreed to let me pop into your inbox twice a week. Keep an eye out for essay #040 that will be dropping on Thursday.
A terrific Tuesday to you and yours!
Cheers,
Arman
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New underwear is such an underrated confidence hack!
I bought a new batch a couple months ago when I realized I've still been wearing ones I had from high school haha
Reminds me of a bit Seinfeld did on how we tend to wear our underwear until they become virtually transparent 😂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7YbN_uAzBQ
Ok, now you've earned full ownership of the second half of your publication name. That was one of the most whimsically eclectic newsletters I've seen in a long time. You keep it interesting Arman! And oh yeah, the hard thing I am avoiding is starting my membership site for Courage Writer.