When you turn forty, something interesting happens. You start wanting to put a word next to your name, maybe a title. But deep down, it’s not really about status or business cards. It’s a quieter question: Who am I now?
I’ve been making things all my life. Since I was a kid, creating something and giving it a name has always been my favorite thing in the world. My journey began in 1997, when I discovered Microsoft FrontPage. I was fourteen, trying to build websites, printing little ads, and gluing them to electric poles on the street. A few years later, if you searched “web design” in Turkish on Google, I was in the top five. I built sites for countless clients and even got featured as “Website of the Week” on one of Turkey’s biggest TV channels. Those were good times, full of curiosity and energy.
In high school I wrote and performed stand-up comedy. Later I tried my hand at fashion. I started a brand called VICAHEN, for people who love to wear black, because I’ve always loved wearing black. I spent a year and a half in a textile company to learn the craft. Then a friend cut corners on production, stole materials, and pocketed the difference. It hurt, but it pushed me back toward the web. We said, fine, let’s build our own website.
That led to eyje.com, a “social comment search engine” that became one of the most-voted projects on Killer Startups. Then came asentence.com, a platform where anyone could describe themselves in a single sentence. In 2008, I launched GiveUpInternet.com, a blog about internet culture and digital absurdity. It’s still online today. Over the years I started more projects than I can count, both in Turkish and English. Each one was a small piece of my curiosity turned into reality.
Eventually I founded a creative agency called Evza. We did great work and even went viral a few times. One of our campaigns got featured in Hürriyet, one of Turkey’s largest newspapers. That’s how Turkish Airlines found me in 2013. I joined their social media team and soon after coordinated Invest on Board, a project connecting entrepreneurs and investors through in-flight entertainment screens. It still runs today. In 2016 I became Corporate Innovation Manager, and in 2018 I launched İnovAnadolu with the motto “The Innovation Movement of Anatolia.”
In 2020 I finished my PhD with a dissertation titled The Role of Motivation and Empowerment in the Relationship Between Innovation and Personality Types. By 2025 I was appointed Manager of Ground Operations Risk. Along the way I also got deeply involved in blockchain, Web3, and dApp projects around the world.
And now, at forty, I keep thinking about identity. An industrial engineer can simply say “I’m an industrial engineer,” and the conversation moves on. But me? I’ve done too many different things to fit in one box. I’m an academic, a corporate manager, an entrepreneur, and a volunteer. Which one defines me?
When I really look at my life, I see one pattern: I start things. That’s what I do. I help people see their potential, their own inner resources, and I encourage them to begin. In corporate life I’m Ahmet Faruk Tuna. In the blockchain world I’m an anonymous frog with a meme face. In entrepreneurship I’m Faruk Tuna. At the university, Dr. Ahmet Faruk Tuna. My brother still calls me Edak, the nickname he gave me as a kid. At home, I’m still that guy.
So who am I? I guess I’m all of it. A builder? Not quite. A starter? Maybe. But also a father who wants his kids to have a joyful life, a husband who wants his wife to feel fulfilled, a son trying to improve his mother’s comfort, a son who hopes his late father would be proud, a brother who supports, and a friend who helps others begin something new.
Forty is complicated like that. Maybe at the end of all this reflection, I’ll choose not to add any title at all. Maybe just being me will finally be enough.
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