# Being the reference
Being the reference · https://build-here.africa/book/chapters/10-00-being-the-reference.html

Nobody has written down what you know how to do.

A team handles incomplete files every week. They write a short guide: one case, the checks, the limits, who to contact. A new colleague uses it and flags something unclear. The team fixes it. The guide has become the reference.

A reference is experience someone else can use: an explanation, a method, an example, a tool. It often starts internal. Published, it serves everyone with the same problem. It comes from what you've built.

This section is about that step: putting your name on it, answering in public, publishing where people look, and knowing what it really costs.

**To start:** next time someone asks you a question, answer where the next person will find it.

**To go further:** write up how you solved a problem you've never seen explained anywhere.

**If you're growing a team:** if nothing says people may share, nobody does. The ⇄ cards cover this.

**A sign it's working:** someone reuses what you passed on without needing you.

**Next:** the conclusion, and the loop that starts again with someone else.