Human beings are made to learn from others.You learn to speak mostly from your mom and immediate family.You learn to play all sorts of games and stuff from the kids next door and in school.You learn about sex from maybe some kids next door,or maybe from school,or maybe your elder siblings,or if you're lucky,mom and/or dad.
We will always be influenced by whatever is around us.Good or bad or in between.Not necessarily because the influeces are great or whatever,but simply because that's the way the human way of learning is structured.
We all know Bill Gates.Most of us also know Henry Ford(Not personally,d'uh!).Now,Henry Ford was quite an influence on Bill Gates,by his own admission,so much so that he(BIll) kept his(Henry's) poster in his office(or home,can't quite remember).You see,Henry Ford may not have invented the automobile,but by virtue of what he did,he invented the auto industry.Bill Gates may not have invented the pc,but he certainly invented the software industry,starting a pure software play at a time when computer manufacturers considered software a distraction that helped sell the hardware,which is where the money was at.Quite revolutionary,these two,if you ask me.
Now,to argue that Bill Gates wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for Henry Ford(or Thomas Watson Jr.,IBM's most influential CEO of all time) is a quite similar to argue that GnR,Aerosmith,and pretty much everyone else after the B's wouldn't have existed if it wasn't for the B's.
I mean no offence,but I find those arguments so....groupie.