You don’t have to be impressive to be important. Ask anyone whose grandmother taught them to sew.

Importance and impressiveness get confused constantly, though they are barely related. The people who shaped you most were probably not remarkable by any public measure; they were present, patient and willing to show you something with their hands. That kind of significance does not scale and has no need to. It lands on one person at a time and then lasts a lifetime.

Think about who taught you something you still use, and whether you have ever told them it stuck. Tell them this month if you can. Then notice that you already hold that position for somebody younger, qualified or not.