I keep on talking and discussing about what gets in first when it comes to human shaping up. The debate is often along the lines of “chicken and egg”: chicken, sometimes, is just a way to make another egg.

As Educator and coach, I am strongly tempted to fall in the “Education comes first” paradigm; of course I am not talking purely about schooling though I admit schooling contributes a lot. Genetics too has very little to do when we think of one’s development. Genes make us tall, brown eye or, God forbid, us facing consequences for their mutation; behavior, for the best and for the worst, is most powerful and effective educator. One’s development is indissolubly related to other’s behavior, especially to the behavior of parents and relatives. The closer we are each other, the more effective and pervasive the influence will be. As easy and obvious as this could appear, we most of the time we lack and miss this perspective. We all have a place in the world, in the society: parents, children, educator, grandparents and for each and every of these roles corresponding behaviors carry consequences and effects. Is a serial killer such because he or she had bad parents? Or is a Nobel prize winner particularly lucky to have parents who are genius? Of course there is not just one answer; it is true however that most of the times, things happen for a reason and rarely as a result of “random” causes. Butterfly effect is just an elementary simplification of this concept. My humble view on this is therefore: we are what we are for a reason even though we cannot even pretend to control every single facet of life. Chaos, in the best interpretation possible, is the very, prime and true law ruling our and other’s existences. We do have the possibility though to reasonably affect and make the difference in our own and other’s lives, with every word we speak and every deed we do.

Never underestimate the powerful influence we can exert on other’s lives. Never underestimate the powerful influence that our thoughts and deeds have on ourselves.

Lorenzo