Have you ever wondered if you were partially responsible for the decisions someone else has made in his/her life?

Yes, at least partially. I know I convinced two people to vote for Obama who wouldn’t have dreamed of it otherwise. It means a lot to me that these people believed enough in me to take my words to heart.

Possibly, there was a friend of mine who had a girlfriend of 4 years, and when I broke up with my boyfriend of 1 year and told him the reasons -that really only applied to my situation, he used those reasons to break up with his girlfriend. I felt horrible and awkward.

I feel responsible for my input, not the final decision. I have a tendency of arguing both for and against my own recommendations and therefore I’d never assume someone is going on my recommendation alone. They might do the right thing and follow my advice, but not blindly.

Every interaction puts you at cause in some way in the actions of others, which in turn cause other effects. We all are at cause in many things, and are rarely if ever the sole cause of anything, from one way of looking at cause, anyway.

Responsible for what? We never make a bad decision at the time. In time it may seem bad but when we do it’s right in our mind. Also we do have free will. If the person follows your advice it is an act of his/her free will. Just tell them to suck it up and live with their fate.

well I’m pretty sure I have been responsible for at least partially influencing people, since I worked as a teacher for many years. Though I hope it was always for the better. One bad advice I’m dealing with right now is when I told my girlfriend to do something and she got into real big trouble for it. And she’s still in trouble. And now I’m trying to help her get out of it of course and it’s all my fault.

I’m also responsible for what one of my old friends called his company, but I don’t think that counts as negative. He just got the idea for the name.