That's what I hope for everyone; the opportunities to chose your
  own influences wisely; watch out whose car you get in if you
  don't know if they'll bring you safely back home again.

  "Is THIS what it means to be a success? Does this match what _I_
  consider to be 'success'?"

  My view has always been an ego-centric one. Had I been raised in
  an environment that was less individualistic and more communal
  in nature, I might have had a different philosophy about life
  and made a different set of choices. I still would have been
  'me' though, just expressed through a different set of choices.