Clay keeps the shape of every hand that pressed it. Be careful whose hands you let shape you.

You are not only influenced by the people around you, you are marked by them, and the marks outlast the friendships. Their standards become your instincts and their idea of what is normal becomes yours without any decision being made. The effect is strongest when you are not trying to be influenced.

Look at who currently has regular access to you, including voices on a screen you have never met. Keep the ones who make you more like the person you would choose to be. Where you cannot change the company, at least know what it is pressing into you.