Why Haven’t I Succeeded Yet?
Have you ever felt like you’re working super hard but not seeing the results you want? I’ve felt that way too. It’s like putting in tons of effort but feeling like you’re still stuck in the same place. If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone!
Imagine you’re trying to learn a new skill. You’ve been practicing for a long time, but you’re still not where you want to be. It can be frustrating, right? Well, when I feel this way, I like to think about big, strong trees.
Some of the strongest trees take the longest time to sprout from their seeds. It might even seem like they’ll never grow! But then, out of the blue, they start growing. And once they do, they become so big that they can give shade to many people and withstand tough conditions. Why? Because while they seemed to be doing nothing, they were growing strong roots underground. These roots give them a solid foundation.
So, if you’re working hard and not seeing results, maybe you’re just growing your “roots.” These roots, or the skills and knowledge you’re gaining, will help you succeed in the long run. Keep going, trust the process, and believe that your efforts will pay off.
However, a little warning: Make sure you’re genuinely putting in the effort. If you’re not trying your best, you can’t expect to see growth. But if you are working hard, trust that you’re building a strong foundation for future success.
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.
