You don't have to be a "person of influence" to be influential. In fact, the most influential people in my life are probably not even aware of the things they've taught me.

He earned an MBA in economics and management from the University of California Berkeley in 1986. Later in the episode the character Dave Nelson (Dave Foley) hires an actor to play Scott Adams in a trick to bring Matthew back to work at the station. He also became a fan of Mad magazine and began spending long hours practicing his drawing talent winning a competition at the age of eleven.

Scott Raymond Adams (born June 8 1957) is the American creator of the Dilbert comic strip and the author of several nonfiction works of satire commentary business and general speculation. His Dilbert series came to national prominence through the downsizing period in 1990s America and was then distributed worldwide. Adams writes in a satirical often sarcastic way about the social and mental landscape of white-collar workers in modern corporations and other large enterprises.