Feb. 2, 2020

BONUS EPISODE - A Letter to My Son - Erol Ertumen - Episode 36

In this week’s episode of The One Last Thought Podcast, we are joined by Erol Ertumen. Erol is sharing a deeply personal and heartfelt letter he wrote to his son. In this letter, he reflects on some of the most impactful life lessons he has learned throughout his life, as well as the one thing he wishes he could pass on to the next generation.

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One Last Thought

Guest: Erol Ertumen.

 

In this week’s episode of The One Last Thought Podcast, we are joined by Erol Ertumen. Erol is sharing a deeply personal and heartfelt letter he wrote to his son. In this letter, he reflects on some of the most impactful life lessons he has learned throughout his life, as well as the one thing he wishes he could pass on to the next generation.

 

Guest bio: 

 

Erol Ertumen is a Christian, Husband, Father, Grandfather, Financial Solutions Advisor, and Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor.

 

Connect with our guest:

 

Erol Ertumen:

 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erolertumen/

Email: mailto:ertumene@gmail.com

Podcast: https://anchor.fm/erolertumen

Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/groups/609361429431270



Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/one-last-thought/exclusive-content

Transcript

Son, when I was about 20 years old, I wrote a letter to you when I was at West Palm Beach near the water, and I intended to give that to you when you were older.

 

At this point, I'm about forty years old. And I can tell you that the letter that I would write to you today would be completely different in these 20 years, and in the 20 years from before that, the many things that I've learned, and I've had to grow, to learn, and I'm going to share with you today, one lesson that if you can implement in your life, you will avoid many of the mistakes that I've made in my life, and I think you'll be a lot happier and be able to make a lot of other people a lot happier in your life.

 

So, as I sat there to write the letter to the son, I was on a mission and I was on a mission to really live a life that was extraordinary.

 

I never approached anything in my life, without the concept of doing something original, and really expressing what I felt would be an expression of an eternal truth that would live past my life.

 

So I took everything in my life very seriously and I went about things in a very unorthodox way, which I still appreciate. At the same time, as I have approached everything in my life, and as I approached these at that time, when I sat down to write that letter to son, what I've come to realize is that I really felt as if I deserved to have an incredible life and that entitlement that I approached everything with and the way that I approached everything to really just ensure that my needs were being met at such a high level, and my vision was being met at such a high level, put such a strong focus on me. I've been very selfish, my entire life, son, and what changed for me, the biggest thing that happened for me was realizing that I was not as important as I thought I was.

 

Things changed for me, son, when I started to focus on a power greater than myself, for me was Jesus. And for me, focusing on giving up my life to Jesus to another power greater than myself and putting that first before my goals and my desires and my happiness changed everything for me.

 

The lesson that I would lose nothing in this world by giving everything away is the biggest lesson I've learned in my life, and for wherever you're at in your life, son, when you hear this, if you could really try to learn and understand that and I know it's not an easy thing, and I know that it's counterintuitive, but I can assure you that you will be happier when you realize that you will make others happier, you will contribute more you will experience what life is really about.

 

Because it's not about you, it's about so much more.

 

So at this point wherever you're at in your life, I pray that you may be able to take this in and if this is already a truth in your life, I'm so proud of you, son and I look forward to really see what you accomplish in your life to impact someone else in here what you would tell your son.

 

Love you.