Topal blends memoir with social inquiry to examine the professional and cultural systems that shape how people develop values and move through the world.

The author is a cancer surgeon, academic, and researcher, as well as the head of the Laboratory of Abdominal Surgical Oncology at Belgium’s KU Leuven. His story begins in his birthplace, high up in a small mountain village in Turkey, southeast of the Black Sea, but soon took him to Belgium, where he faced cultural and language differences and power dynamics that sharpened his determination to be successful: “No one can change the orbit of the stars. Eyes see what they see, but the brain, the imagination, sees much further.” It’s at this point that he set himself on a path to an impressive career in medicine, pursuing surgery as a specialty. As Topal overcame various obstacles, he observed the external and internal forces that shape people’s priorities and approaches to life, and he became strongly convinced that “People can overcome any natural barrier.” He then asks readers to consider what is lost when systems of efficiency and control replace empathy—a question that builds toward the introduction of what he calls the Zigana model: a growth framework that combines different types of motivation, curiosity, and intelligence and aims to equip readers with the tools they need to make emotional, professional, or physical progress. Readers may use such insights to learn how to reconnect with their values and reclaim their agency within deeply rooted systems. Ultimately, the book aims to foster a more humane approach to healthcare, specifically, and to leadership and everyday life, more generally. To that end, Topal effectively offers a disruptive yet approachable pathway for challenging long-held societal beliefs, as when he notes: “Real growth rarely shows itself on the surface. It takes place deep inside, where truth and resistance meet. Only when you allow what you first pushed away, when you dare to look at what you would rather not see, does space open—for you to change.”

A compassionate and thoughtful guide to reclaiming one’s humanity in a systems-driven world.