Who Is Your Biggest Influencer(s)?

Is there someone who has contributed and greatly impacted the way your life has shaped out to be?  I know I do.  The one(s) who has instilled the belief and confidence in you to become whoever you like to become.  Saying and believing to you that with hard work and dedication, you can succeed in whatever path in life you choose.  For me, it has been my parents.  Both who are really hard workers and had the odds stacked against them growing up.  My dad lived in an area where it was rough and jobs were scarce.  Some nights he would come home and there would be no food to eat.  He once told me that he and his friends used to go dumpster driving just to fight off hunger.  As my dad grew older he moved from the area where he lived as a child to one that had better job opportunities and a place to raise a family.  In the new area, my dad did not have much of an education, so it was going to be hard for him to find a job anyways, he dropped out of high school.  My dad somehow found a job where he made a career out of it.  He now works in upper management and still get lots of lucrative job offers from different companies.  My dad has written his own ticket despite coming from a poor area.  My mom had come from a poor area, but not nearly as bad as my dad.  She has a high school education, but found a job and turned into a career.  The job she works at has a lot of turnovers and layoffs, but she still stands.  My mom came to work on days where the weather was too bad and worked a lot of overtime.  Little things like that can go a long and can determine if an employer wants to give someone the pink slip or not.  I owe having a better life to my parents.  Without them doing what they did, I do not know how I would have turned out.  Despite what upbringings somebody has, one can turn his or her life around into something positive through hard work and determination.