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How 80% of Success in the Digital Landscape is Just Turning Up

The Root of Growth: Building a Thriving Tech Business by Consistently Doing the Work

In the labyrinthine world of tech, it’s easy to get lost in the details, chasing the latest framework or tool. This week, let’s zoom out and focus on what truly drives success: showing up and growing day after day.

I remember when I first started Merlin Mines. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of tasks - from coding to marketing to client management. It felt like I needed to master everything at once. But here’s the truth I learned: before mastery, do the work. After mastery, keep doing the work.

Merlin Mines: Unearthing the Power of Persistence

Building Merlin Mines has been our main focus this week. What have we learned? In the beginning, there is no balance; there is only the drive to show up and the will to grow. You don’t start with a perfectly balanced skill set. You start by tackling the most crucial task, again and again.

For instance, when we first implemented our secure build system, we debugged countless hours. It wasn’t glamorous, but showing up every day and tackling each bug systematically led to a robust system that now forms the backbone of our security CI/CD offering.

Tip of the Week: Set a “showing up” goal. It could be writing 100 lines of code, spending 30 minutes on a tough problem, or making one meaningful connection in your industry. Do it every day for a week and watch your progress compound.

The Surprising Power of Coaching

As we’ve been developing our team, I’ve discovered something remarkable: people will surprise you when you coach them instead of telling them what to do. It’s like unlocking hidden potential you didn’t know existed.

For example, when one of our junior developers struggled with a complex algorithm, instead of providing the solution, I asked guiding questions. The result? Not only did they solve the problem, but they also came up with an optimization we hadn’t considered before.

The 1-3-1 Rule: A Problem-Solving Framework

We’ve been implementing the 1-3-1 rule in our team discussions:

1. Bring 1 problem to the table
2. Present 3 potential solutions
3. Choose 1 recommendation to implement

This approach has been transforming our problem-solving process, empowering team members to think critically and come prepared with solutions.

Here’s a recent example: We were facing issues with our CI/CD pipeline. A team member presented the problem, offered three solutions (optimizing our Docker images, parallelizing our tests, or upgrading our build servers), and recommended parallelizing our tests. We implemented this solution, reducing our build times by 40%.

To implement this in your own work:

1. Identify a recurring challenge in your projects
2. Before your next team meeting, brainstorm three possible solutions
3. Present your findings and recommend one solution to implement

Outcome Measure Coach: Tracking Our Progress

To improve, we need to measure our progress. Our Outcome Measure Coach system helps us stay on track and celebrate our wins, no matter how small.

Just last week, we celebrated reducing our API response time by 50ms. It might seem small, but for our high-traffic clients, this translates to significant performance improvements.

Here’s a simple template you can use to track your own progress:

1. Goal: [Your objective]
2. Current state: [Where you are now]
3. Desired state: [Where you want to be]
4. Action steps: [3-5 concrete actions to take]
5. Metrics: [How you’ll measure progress]
6. Celebration criteria: [What constitutes a win, no matter how small]

What We’ve Shipped: Advancing Our Projects

​Rune: Fortifying Our Digital Security

• Added GitHub and GitLab support for key generation
  • This allows seamless integration with popular version control platforms, enhancing security without disrupting workflow
• Implemented secret generation for Kubernetes
  • Now you can manage your K8s secrets more securely, reducing the risk of exposure in your container orchestration

​Big Brain: Expanding Our Knowledge Base

• Added Go support for LLM RAG dumps
  • This update allows for more efficient processing of large language models in Go, speeding up your AI-driven applications

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• Coming Soon: Python support
  • We’re excited to bring the same powerful capabilities to Python, expanding the reach of our AI solutions

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Our Secure Platform automation tools are designed to solve these exact challenges. If you’re struggling with integrating security into your development workflow, let’s chat about how we can help.

On the Horizon: New Challenges Await

• New DevOps course: Soft launch at the end of the month. This course will teach you how to implement CI/CD pipelines, manage cloud infrastructure, and integrate security at every step of your development process.

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• Updated company website: Our digital presence got a refresh. Check out our new case studies section, showcasing real-world applications of our security solutions.

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• CloudMason website update: We’re working on creating an interactive website for the Cloudmasons!

Reader Spotlight

Meet Sarah, a full-stack developer who implemented our 1-3-1 rule in her startup. She says, “It’s transformed our meetings from complaint sessions to productive problem-solving powerhouses. We shipped our MVP two weeks ahead of schedule!”

In Conclusion, Keep Building

Remember, whether you’re new to coding or a seasoned tech professional, the principle remains the same: show up, do the work, grow. Consistent, deliberate practice is the path to mastery.

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What’s one way you’re committing to showing up this week? Share in the comments below - let’s inspire each other to keep pushing forward.

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Until next week, keep building and improving in your digital endeavors. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single line of code - and continues with showing up, day after day.

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Speaking of community, are you looking for a place to connect with like-minded professionals, share experiences, and grow your skills? Join Cloud Masons, our free DevOps and platform engineering community dedicated to fostering talent and building connections. It’s the perfect place to continue your journey of showing up and growing alongside fellow tech enthusiasts.