Would you go out of your way to help someone from going down a similar path as yourself?

Recently I met someone who reminded me a lot of the me in high school… which isn’t a good thing, and well, I befriended this individual and have been starting to help this person into… well, not me/no one similar to me. This person has so much potential to be wonderful and I don’t want to see it be wasted (like I did/do).

So back to the question (I’m not asking if I should be going out of my way to help this person, anyone who says I should/shouldn’t will be ignored), would you try to assist someone who seems similar to you to grow into someone better than you?