THIS IS AN EMAIL WRITTEN FOR MY TEAM TO REMIND THEM OF THE NEVER-ENDING PATH TO MASTERY

If I had to review 2017 with a single word, that word would be “Quest”. We started the year dealing with aftermath of launching Mindvalley Quests 1.0 at the end of 2016. It was put together hastily on our existing learning platform built on Ruby on Rails.

At the same time, we also started working on the next version of the Quest. It was time for us to move beyond Rails and we placed our bet on Elixir. The journey wasn’t easy as we had to learn, unlearn and relearn a lot of things.

Miraculously, we managed to launched the new version (Quest 2.0) around May, despite rebuilding it on a new and unfamiliar technology stack (Elixir/Phoenix) while keeping existing Quest 1.0 version in sync.

It was an ambitious goal to rebuild the platform and we did have to pay for it after the launch. We had to rebuild and refactor many parts of the app as we took on some calculated technical debt to meet the deadline. 

And while we were tending to the mess we created, we also spent a great deal of effort to retire the first version of Quest. This was a big as it freed us from having to maintain and support the older app. Then, to wrap up the year, we worked some improvements to launch yet another version. (3.0)  

Basically in 2017, we started with Quest 1.0 fresh off the oven, baked 2.0 with a new recipe, got rid of the oven that baked 1.0 and end the year with a newly-improved 3.0. It’s definitely a Quest-filled year.

As we enter 2018, I’m hoping for a year just as amazing and stressful as 2017 while we continue on our quest. We have made great progress last year but we are not done yet. 

The path to mastery is a life-long never-ending quest. As we strive to master this new stack, we must accept that despite all the work we have done, there is still a long journey ahead.

There are many more learnings to be done and failures to be made. We shall continue to take risks by venturing into the unknown. Even though it’s easier to stay on the well-trodden path, it’s way more fun to take a detour once in a while.

And in the past year, we have also gotten a lot better working together as a team. We were able to deliver complex features and cover for each other when needed. Even our meetings and reviews were more efficient and productive. 

So for 2018, I see no reason for us to not deliver Quest 4,5 and 6 while saving the world from global warming. As long as we continue to have the heart to serve, communicate intentionally, adapt and learn while working together as a team, no quest is too hard for us. 

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