My Journey from Disliking Books to Becoming an Avid Reader
If someone from my childhood days had predicted my future love for reading, I would have laughed it off. As a child, I was deeply engrossed in mathematics, reveling in the satisfaction of solving complex problems. Reading, especially lengthy texts, felt like a chore.
While I excelled academically, my grades clearly reflected my preferences: high scores in logic and math and just passable ones in reading-intensive subjects like history.
Fast forward to the present, and I’m a voracious reader, delving into diverse topics from psychology to business. So, what sparked this transformation?
Much of the credit goes to my high school, Ghana Secondary Technical School. The school provided us with supplementary readers each term, and examinations included questions from these books. Being a top-performing student, I had no choice but to read them meticulously.
A pivotal moment came in my final year when I secured second place in a regional mathematics competition. Among my prizes was a book by John C. Maxwell on leadership. Though a quick read, it was packed with insights. I was so inspired that I began seeking out more of Maxwell’s works.
On one such quest, I stumbled upon “Know Your Limits and Ignore Them” by John Mason. This book opened my eyes to the vast knowledge contained within written words. I further explored the world of audiobooks and came across a story from Maxwell himself.
He spoke of how his father incentivized him and his siblings to read. It struck me: if reading could empower and enlighten, why not embrace it?
That realization was the catalyst. Although the transformation was subtle, spanning about four years, it was profound. By the end of those years, I had unknowingly become a consistent reader.
In retrospect, I believe the journey to loving reading starts with a single captivating book, which gradually nurtures the habit. If you’re seeking to develop a reading habit, begin with one intriguing book. Over time, you might find yourself as engrossed in reading as I am today.
Until next time!
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.
