Can You Succeed in an Industry Dominated by Big Players?
Today, a conversation with a colleague got me thinking. We were brainstorming business ideas, and it struck me: most concepts aren’t entirely groundbreaking. Many times, they’re iterations or improvements on existing ideas.
So, can one carve out a niche in an industry already dominated by titans? Despite the challenges, I remain optimistic. The more pressing concern is, “How can we thrive in such an environment, especially with limited resources?”
New businesses emerge daily. Many are treading paths others have already walked. While numerous startups don’t make it past their first few years, the success stories of those that do are enlightening. What strategies or unique approaches allowed them to thrive where others faltered?
Throughout the years, I’ve gleaned insights from various successful CEOs. A recurring theme among them is their relationship with failure. Embracing mistakes, rather than avoiding them, seems integral to their success.
Mark Zuckerberg, for instance, once shared that he wouldn’t avoid any of the mistakes made during Facebook’s (now Meta) journey. In fact, he wished he’d encountered them sooner, believing they paved the way for his success.
Elon Musk, discussing Tesla, admitted he initially doubted the company’s potential. What intrigued me was his rationale for persevering despite the anticipated failure. Musk’s perspective was clear: “If you’re passionate about something, pursue it, regardless of the odds.”
Numerous success stories echo this sentiment. Take EPIC Systems in the USA, for example. They dominate the market in Electronic Health Records systems today. However, they entered a market with established competitors and still managed to emerge as leaders.
I’m now more convinced than ever that with the right mindset and approach, one can thrive even in saturated markets. If the research supports the vision, and the passion is there, then nothing should deter one from pursuing their dream.
But beyond that, it’s vital to continuously seek and understand what makes some businesses rise above the rest.
Dr. Ehoneah Obed (Pharmacist, Software Engineer, Health Informatician, Founder)
My work focuses on identity engineering, which is the deliberate process of designing and updating who you are, personally and professionally.
Most people experience identity as something fixed or accidental. It is shaped by parents, early success or failure, education, and society’s definition of what a “good life” looks like. They adapt to it rather than questioning it. What most people do not realize is that identity is not just something you discover. It is something you can actively engineer.
Personal identity engineering is about gaining control over how your beliefs, values, and self-concept are formed and reinforced.
Professional identity engineering is about translating that internal identity into skills, work, leverage, and visible contribution in the world.
When people feel stuck, it is rarely because they lack motivation or talent. It is because they are trying to change outcomes while leaving the underlying identity system untouched. Careers stall. Confidence collapses. Direction feels unclear. The system keeps producing the same results.
I learned this by rebuilding myself multiple times.
I trained as a pharmacist for six years. While working in hospitals, I began learning to code alongside my job. That led to building real software, selling products, transitioning into software engineering, completing a master’s degree in health informatics at the University of Toronto, and now building startups and systems full time. Each transition followed the same pattern. My identity did not change because I thought differently. It changed because I took specific actions that produced new evidence, and that evidence forced a new story about who I was capable of being.
That is the core mechanism behind identity engineering.
Identity updates when you intentionally generate evidence that contradicts your old self-image, then compound that evidence until the old identity can no longer run the system.
This blog is where I document that process. I write about how to design identity experiments that are small, controlled, and reversible. How to build proof-of-work that changes both how you see yourself and how the world responds to you. How to move forward without waiting for clarity, confidence, or permission.
This is not motivation and it is not coaching. It is systems thinking applied to human change.
I also write The Ledger, a weekly record of systems and experiments for building a life you own.
And I built the Identity Audit, a diagnostic tool that helps you understand your current identity state before you attempt to change it.
I am not presenting a finished theory. I am engineering this in real time, using my own life as the test environment. If you want more agency over who you are becoming, both personally and professionally, you are in the right place.
