Letters to My Future Self: Today’s Decisions, Tomorrow’s Gifts

2/13/2024

Dear Future Cem,

I’m writing this letter to you because I know how much you depend on me. My thoughts, actions, beliefs, and decisions today will shape your world tomorrow. It’s a big responsibility, and I’m doing my best to make choices that you’ll be thankful for.

Right now, I’m 45 years old. I’ve done a lot in my life, especially when it comes to work. I’ve started companies, made deals, and seen both successes and failures. But if I’m honest, there’s one thing I wish I had done differently: I wish I had taken better care of my health and strength. For too long, I let work take over everything. I didn’t make time for fun or for taking care of my body. But I’m lucky—I’m still pretty healthy, and for the last three years, I’ve been working hard to get even healthier. I want you, Future Cem, to be glad for the effort I’m putting in now.

Every time I make a decision, I think about how it will affect you. I ask myself if it’s going to make you upset or if it’s going to make you grateful. I imagine you at 80 years old, and I want you to be happy with the life I’ve lived. When we’re 80, the things that will really matter are our health, our family and friends, and being able to live freely, not depending on anyone else. All the stuff like fancy cars and big houses won’t mean much then. They seem important now, but they’re just distractions from what’s truly valuable.

I hope I’m making the right choices to build a good future for you. I’m trying to pick actions that will help, and I believe that if I do, things will turn out well for us.

Here’s to making decisions that will make both of us proud. I hope when you read this, you’ll see that I did my best for us.

Take care,

Cem Hurturk

February 13th, 2024

Enjoyed this article?

Get my latest thoughts on building software, business, and life delivered to your inbox.

My Random Thoughts

Society Calls You a Dilettante. I Call It Strategic Redundancy

For as long as I can remember, I've been told to focus on one thing. At 47, after launching more than 20 businesses since 1998, I finally realized the truth: my inability to specialize wasn't a weakness—it was my superpower. While specialists become fragile when their industry changes, I built redundancy. Multiple pillars of expertise that let me pivot, adapt, and survive when markets disappeared overnight. If you've spent your life jumping between interests and feeling guilty about it, stop apologizing. You're not a dilettante. You're building an M-shaped mind.

1/17/2026

The Older You Get, the Better You Surf

Nobody tells you this when you're young and hungry and absolutely convinced you can outwork reality itself. Getting older comes with one advantage that took me three decades to notice—learning when to knock the door until it opens and when to just surf the wave. After spending my teens, twenties, and thirties forcing every door open, I discovered that the harder you punch life in the face, the harder it punches you back. Now in my early 40s, my entire system comes down to one question: what needs to be done right now? Do it completely, let go of the outcome, and move on. It sounds like giving up—until you've paid the full cost of the alternative.

3/2/2026

The 9 Brutal Truths About Building a SaaS Business

Rob Walling has spent 20+ years building and exiting SaaS companies. In his video "The Brutal Truths of Building a SaaS Business," he lays out the 9 realities that nobody warns you about—from the long slow ramp of death that kills most founders' dreams, to why your social media audience won't save your launch, to the churn problem that destroys everything you build. I watched it, took notes, and wrote down my key takeaways so I can reference them whenever I need a reality check. These truths aren't meant to scare you off. They're meant to prepare you.

1/10/2026