Thank you for the thoughtful post! As an expecting father with my little girl due in December, this is something I have thought about often recently. How can I prepare my daughter and any future children to be the most successful they can be? How do I make sure I point them in the right direction? I think these are questions every caring parent struggles with but like you said, our children pick up on our idiosyncrasies on their own and as long as we are good people and try our best to reflect someone we would want them to grow up to be and emulate that's the best we can do. Are we going to make mistakes? Of course, but I think it's important to show our children not only how to behave when successful but also in failure.

Having said that, you would be surprised how much DNA and epigenetics seem to effect who you are also. I've read accounts of twins separated at birth, raised in different families, and reunited after 40+ years only to find they share the same career, hobbies, favorite foods, etc. Crazy!