Arman's Antics (#032)
The latest from wantrepreneur Arman Khodadoost
Hey everyone!
Coming to you live from Austin, Texas. Here’s your weekly dose of Arman’s Antics. A few things I’ve been enjoying that will either make you think deeply 🤔, laugh heartily 😂, cry uncontrollably 🥹 (or a nasty combination of the three).
Welcome to the three new subscribers receiving this for the first time (240 total). I don’t take your attention lightly.
Essay I wrote last week 📝
Actions drown out words (#050)
I told my dad I really wanted to be an entrepreneur like him. He’s owned several businesses before it was sexy (over 40 years). He said, “No you don’t.” This caught me off guard because my dad is typically gentle with his words. Then I replied, “Yeah I do. It’s always been a dream of mine!”
Why do we insist on telling two different stories? One with our words. Another with our actions.
It took me a long time to realize that our words reveal our ideal selves while our actions reveal our true selves.
Movie I watched over the weekend 🎬
Apocalypto. From IMDb: “In the Maya civilization, a peaceful tribe is brutally attacked by warriors seeking slaves and human beings for sacrifice for their gods. Jaguar Paw hides his pregnant wife and his son in a deep hole nearby their tribe and is captured while fighting with his people. An eclipse spares his life from the sacrifice and later he has to fight to survive and save his beloved family.” Here’s the trailer:
How had I never heard of this? It had me on the edge of my couch from the opening scene to the credits.
And I almost missed out when my fiancé recommended it, thanks to one silly rule. I don’t watch movies with subtitles.
Subtitles make me feel like I’m reading a book instead of watching a movie. Don’t get me wrong, I’m an avid reader but not when I want to watch something.
But rules are meant to be broken, right? And the feast for my eyes was well worth it. Even if I had to speed read to be able to quickly look up to see what was going on.
But I would have loved this even if it was a silent film. It’s that good. This is a highly underrated movie. Have you seen it?
A couple of writers you need to check out 👩💻🧑💻
One of the best parts about writing online is meeting other online writers. It’s a treat to follow along on their journey and see them evolve. Here are a couple that I met while taking the online writing course Write of Passage last year that I look forward to reading every week:
- is an awesome newsletter written by my friend Chris Cordry. How awesome is it? Awesome enough to receive a shoutout from the legend himself Tim Ferriss for his learnings from five years of doing PYRs (past year reviews). Tim shared Chris's article with his 2 million subscribers in his own newsletter at the end of 2022.
- by Grace Smith. She has a way of getting me to feel exactly what she's feeling every time I read one of her essays. Ecstatic, nervous, anxious, you name it. She's got plenty of great ones but I'd recommend starting here: The big power of little things (great title too).
The best basketball player you’ve never heard of ⛹🏽♂️
My Atlanta Hawks got knocked out of the NBA playoffs a few days ago. But not without putting up a valiant effort versus the Boston Celtics.
Watching all this playoff basketball got me thinking about some of my favorite players. And no, I’m not talking about MJ, Lebron, or Kobe. Too mainstream.
So the other night I found myself watching long montages of my all-time favorite who doesn’t get enough love.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Jamal Crawford. He played in the NBA for 20 years (2000-2020) and is easily one of the best ball handlers to ever play the game. Watching him play was poetry in motion.
Plus, he’s only 6 feet 5 inches tall (which is on the short side for NBA players) and was always skinny. So he had to use his creativity to score.
He also played for my Hawks so I got to appreciate him on a nightly basis for a couple of seasons. Enjoy:
Random thought
Study history long enough and you have no choice but to be an optimist.
That’s it for the 32nd edition of Arman’s Antics. Thank you for taking a few minutes between sips of coffee to read this. Have you ever watched Apocalypto? Did you subscribe to
and yet? Could you cross someone up like Jamal Crawford?Xena thinks she’s a model now and says hi:
Have a terrific Tuesday!
Cheers,
Arman
Likes and comments below.
Always wanted to see J Crossover get a ring...
Apocalypto is a great movie!