How was that recovery?

So when I closed my eyes, I saw a field of flowers and I thought, I'm going to be fine.

I'll be fine.

Next I knew, I opened my eyes and my surgeon, Dr. Kassam, was leaning over and saying, Shireen, open your eyes.

Can you see? Can you see? And I opened my eyes.

I'm like, I'm I can see, I can see.

I always tell him, and I was talking to him not too long ago, that when you were born the first time, you don't remember the doctor that birthed you.

What did you learn about life when you lost the ability to walk?

What's one thing he said or did that you still in your own voice today? And tell us a little bit about his background as well.

So my father was also a child of a large family and had lost his dad when his dad was only 40 years old.

So he had to immediately hit the ground running with working.

So in that case, we had things in common for different reasons.

He as well had to move from the city where he was born to Tehran, which is not quite as big a distance as I went.

But the idea that he moved from one place to another is also in common.

And then he built a life with my mother on their own.

What was running through your mind walking on stage minutes later?

... audit business wasn't enough to satisfy your appetite.

Yes.

I loved the company.

I loved the people.

I loved my experiences, and I...

Experiences, and I realized the more I, I did it, the better I became.

Over time, it felt like I started becoming really good at auditing, which is great.

Why don't you pick us up from there and take us through some of the incredible milestones that have brought you to where we are today and to the book?

But now looking back, it was young.

It is young.

It is young.

I think, thank you for saying that.

I also think that I had plenty of life that I had lived up to that point.

So I had a lot more maturity than you would think a 28-year-old would have.

Yeah.

So you had to go rebuild the whole team.

So

I packed everything I owned in my young life at 17, said goodbye to everybody I knew, friends, family, siblings, father, and left.

My mom took me to Istanbul, Turkey.

That was the neighboring country.

where she found a place for me to stay at a woman's house and she also left.

So here I was at 17 with very little money, no parents.

I had never really been away from home and I had to find my way.

And maybe you could tie that into the doing well by doing good.

the challenges and where you're at today, what you're looking forward to?

Yes.

Uh, this is, uh, definitely a very trying time for Iran and anybody who cares about human rights.

So I want to acknowledge that.

And I do want to say that I experienced this regime firsthand.

I was born and raised in a very nice family, loving family in Iran when things were smooth, normal, until the revolution happened, and chaos ensued.

And as a result, we lost all sense of safety.

Um, what changed in the way you look at life and work and family, and what, what changed the way you look at through the lens after something like that happens?

Tell me more about your journey about that, which is not a simple step, right?

Right.

So I think a lot of what I talk about in this book and a lot of what my life is about is transformation.

And I've done that multiple times in my life.

So when I first started my career, eventually out of the gas station, I was an accountant.

I worked at EY, was very excited to have a job there.

I was doing really well until I looked at what the career trajectory looked like for someone like me.

Maybe it's an 80-20 thing.

So take us back to Iran and tell us about your growing up years and how you wound up here from there.

Yes.

I was born and raised in Iran.

To a busy family, I was the youngest of five children.

And growing up, we were in a very nice environment, a very loving environment.

I had lots of cousins and friends.

And this is the Iranian before the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Why don't you pick us up from there and take us through some of the incredible milestones that have brought you to where we are today and to the book?