MYmentor was my father Frank Sweeney. He was a senior partner with Croskerrys solicitors, but he was also a very entrepreneurial guy. He was involved with loads of businesses over the years. For example, he was the founder of the Japan-Ireland Economic Association. We always had Japanese people around the house when there were no Japanese people in the country at all. And he was involved with bringing the first salmon cages into Ireland when salmon was the most expensive thing you could get. And I remember as kids we all went to live for a year because he was involved in developing an apartment complex in the south of Spain.

So the entrepreneurialism obviously had an impact on you?

It affected all of us. In my family there were seven kids.

Not one of us "nished university and every one of us is self-employed.

There's a bit of an anti-authoritarian, rebellious streak in us all and we got that from him. He taught us that we could do anything we wanted to and only fear was preventing us from doing it. I also learned from him that the journey to success involves failing along the way, and that you learn from that and you become better by virtue of the fact you made a dog's dinner of it the "rst time.

Where did that entrepreneurial drive come from?

I think he had a low boredom threshold. He was also really into 'toys'. He had vintage cars at one time, and then he had a thing called an 'amphicat' which was a sixwheel dune buggy which drove like a tank. It was also amphibious so we had great fun going in the water with it. And he had a "ame thrower as well, but the mother banned that because he couldn't control it.

How else did he affect the way you do things?

He was a real leader. I remember lots of people coming to him for advice. And he taught me that it was important to contribute to society. As kids he used to bring us out with him to the Simon Community shelters to help the homeless people. And then he got myself and my sister to join up with the local Vincent de Paul when we were teenagers.

For him, the important thing was that you contributed in some way to the world. He taught me that you can be narcissistic and do things for yourself, but when you do it for others you enjoy it more.

Brody Sweeney is the founder of O'Brien's Sandwich Bars and a prospective Fine Gael TD. His late father Frank Sweeney was a solicitor and entrepreneur