Internet entrepreneur Lulu O’Sullivan
My earliest ambition was to. . . run my granny's sweet shop. It was called Notions on Merrion Row in Dublin and I used to go in every Saturday morning and help out. It had a high counter and shelves of glass jars full of sweets. All my friends used to think I was so lucky having a granny with a sweet shop but you got nothing unless it was a broken bar or stale or gone-off. She was a real businesswoman and she kept working until she was 82.
The people who inspire me are. . . on the world stage, people like Body Shop founder Anita Roddick and Chuck Feeney. In Ireland, a role model would be Miriam O'Callaghan, who's so down to earth, managing family and career and getting on with it in a very professional way.
Being a woman in business is different because. . . Women look at situations differently. Women tend to negotiate less aggressively but that doesn't mean they don't end up with the same results.
If I wasn't doing this I'd be . .. running a nice arts and crafts gallery in the west of Ireland.
I keep physically fit by. . . doing a lot of walking, some cycling and a Pilates class two or three times a week.
My idea of a perfect day is. . . a trip on our boat off the coast of Sligo, maybe a nice little picnic (if I'm very organised) with the kids and family, or maybe climbing a mountain.
If I lost everything in the morning I'd. . . start again. I'm a real believer in playing the game and I would have learned an awful lot from the lessons of failure.
My favourite way to relax is to. . . have dinner with friends and family. My husband [Brodie Sweeney] does a brilliant lobster dish so I get the commis-chef jobs, like peeling and clearing up. He loves cooking and usually I end up doing all the tidying up the next morning and wondering if I got the best end of the deal.
Starting a new enterprise in a recession is. . . something I've already done. I started Inter-Teddy [now Giftsdirect.com] with £2,000 in the late 1980s. It keeps you really focused and every penny really matters. It also means you have to do everything yourself so I've been very glad I didn't have tonnes of money starting off. It was a really good discipline.
I love to wear. . . the designs of friends like Daryl K, who's Irish and based in New York, and Lucy Downes. Their stuff is slightly different, has a little twist to it, and is really easy to wear.
If you're living away from Ireland. . . Irishness becomes much more important to people, whether it's dressing in green head-to-toe on Patrick's Day or wearing a piece of Irish jewellery every day. Our products are not too twee (the shillelagh and leprechaun stuff) but focused on the work of fantastic craftspeople.
I have a very strong sense of belonging. . . When people start giving out about Ireland, I just will not take part. I just think we're a fantastic bunch and we'll pull ourselves out of this and get on with it. I love Ireland. I even love the weather.
Lulu O’Sullivan’s new online Irish giftshop, siopa.com, was launched last week
