How much of the past is paving the way to your future?

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* Please read this all the way through before replying, this is not about relatiohships.* How much of the past have you carried into your future? I don't mean past relationships, friendships,or even petty squabbles (atleast not for this disscussion)I mean past as in past civilizations, literature, culture,and past wars. I find myself constanly looking back as I pave my way to move forward. I am a very philosphical person, I whole heartedly believe that our future triumphs have a great deal to do with our past failures. This applies to society and to self, I know that I have embrassed alot of the past in my travels forward I thought for a long time that inorder to achieve greatness that I had to go it alone, and lead where others had only followed. However it was in looking back that I realized the error of my ways. It is possible to be great without being a trail blazzer, not being first is not automatic failure, as long as you take something useful from the experiance. So how much of the past is helping paving the way into your future? "A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration, the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires".- Marcus Aurelius