That thread about what you do....I hope it goes on forever because it really is fascinating. But this is something I have thought of many times, the handful of people who literally changed the course of my life. So here goes, without names:
First, a professor at UC Berkeley who really allowed me to peer into the past, he was an archeologist and brilliant but with no academic airs.
2nd, I worked on a farm for awhile and the guy I worked for mostly, was a cowboy (calf roper), sheep herder, sheep dog trainer....he taught me what toughness was, quiet toughness, not the swaggering swinging d__k. type.
Last would be the foreman of a construction company I worked for....he taught me how to work.
And a final nod to Relson Gracie and the Brazilian guys I trained with for awhile in Honolulu who took tough to another level.