Picture it, a book as a hard working cart, rolling through boundless time and space, carrying stories and knowledge from one mind to another. Pages spin like wheels, with every turn ideas tumble forward. Suddenly what lived in one person’s imagination finds its way into yours. Ideas aren’t tangible but they are graspable.

It’s why I love sharing books. In my mind they cart knowledge of all kinds. But transference? A book doesn’t spill its contents itself. The opening alone doesn’t guarantee inspiration, doesn’t assure ability and accomplishment, and make capabilities or skills flow, grow or find their way to others. What does?

We’re surrounded by transfer mechanisms that we barely notice. A smile transfers mood. A recipe transfers flavor across generations. A song transfers the exact feeling of a summer evening in a place, and time straight into your Tuesday morning commute.
Yet accomplishments? They seem to follow different rules entirely.

The Lighthouse Theory

Maybe accomplishments transfer like lighthouses give guidance. They don’t move from place to place. Instead, they send beacons. Your achievement too serves as a reference point—”If they could climb that mountain, perhaps I can climb mine.”
The lighthouse doesn’t leave its rocky perch to guide ships. It simply exists, boldly and brightly, and in doing so, creates new possibilities in other people’s minds.

The Seed Paradox

Or perhaps accomplishments transfer like seeds—but not in the way you’d expect. When you plant a tomato seed, you don’t get the same tomato. You get an entirely new plant with its own tomatoes.
Your breakthrough doesn’t transfer directly to me. Instead, it plants something in my mind that grows into my breakthrough—different, unexpected, uniquely mine, yet it grew from your original success.

The Echo Chamber —made Magical

Lately, I use fun to both stretch thought, and set ideas free, put them in play. What if accomplishments transfer through professional echo chambers—not the problematic kind, but the acoustic kind?
In certain buildings, a whisper in one corner can be heard perfectly by someone in the opposite corner. Professional networks can work this way. Your quiet victory in Project Management whispers across the space and arrives, crystal clear, in someone else’s Marketing challenge.

So I’m curious—
Have you noticed things you make happen transferring to others? Perhaps, it’s in stories you tell at coffee meetings. Or the casual confidence you approach new challenges? The different questions you ask? Or something else entirely—maybe something that doesn’t even have a name yet?

I have grown, by stretching my mind. My discoveries happen, not when I find the answer. But when I realize the question I asked was too small. It didn’t leave room for things that escaped my line of sight.

Try it. In a meeting, at an event, or talking with a friend or colleague. Watch for the invisible carts. The lighthouses. The seeds. The echoes.

What is transferring? What seeds are sprouting? What beacon are you creating? Bring your attention to what else, that you or others may not yet know.

And if you find the secret, of accomplishment transfer? Send it my way. I will pass it on. Whatever it is.