Influence vs. Me

How influential is influence? Kind of a stupid question, don’t you think? Well, bear with me for a minute.

What you let influence you will one day define you, my child — I’ll say to my bright-eyed son or daughter. And when they ask me how, I will tell them this:

Your happiness should be influenced only by one person. Yourself.
Your opinion should be influenced only by one person. Yourself.
Your vision should be influenced by many, many people, but defined only by one. Yourself.
Your ethics should be influenced by the fear of many.

(Apologies for the “my son” jargon. I just watched three episodes of Game of Thrones.)