Entrepreneur and former journalist Mark Little says reports of his wealth are "greatly exaggerated".
Mark spent years as a journalist, before quitting the field to co-found Storyful - the social media intelligence firm which was ultimately sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp for €18 million.
Mark spoke to The Hard Shoulder about serving as RTÉ Washington correspondent during the Clinton years, quitting journalism, and setting up (and selling off) Storyful.
He said journalism was what he wanted to study in Trinity College in the 1980s, but social issues in Ireland and the world had turned him into a "student radical".
Mark told Ivan: "This was Ireland in the mid-80s... [you had] unemployment, emigration, there was no divorce, no contraception.
"Globally you had apartheid, Ronald Reagan, Central America, conflicts all over the world."
After starting his journalism career at the Sunday Business Post, he joined RTÉ in 1991.
He described the recently retired broadcaster Sean O'Rourke was one of the most important influences on him during some of his early years at RTÉ.
Four years after joining the national broadcaster, Mark was appointed as the Washington correspondent - a role he was in for six years.
Mark said he became used to sleep deprivation due to the long hours involved in the job.
He described Washington as a 'Disneyland for nerds and political anoraks', and the Clintons as people you 'grew to not like over time'.
He said: "What I was there to do... was kind of translate American politics for a country back home.
"[It was about] telling a story in a way that never forgot your responsibility to the audience, and not getting too carried away by the glamour of being in the White House or a plane all the time."
He said living in America gave him a sense of "boundless opportunity" - but he managed to remain grounded in his Irish roots.
However, he said he also got to live out his dream of being a foreign correspondent, travelling to war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan during the 2000s.
'Referee between rival politicians'
Mark decided to move away from journalism after becoming 'disillusioned' with some aspects of the job.
He observed: "The time you had on air to explain complex subject was shortening... the interest in foreign affairs was lessening.
"There was a real sense that everything was about the heat of the argument, and less about the light on the problem... really my job in some ways was to be a referee between rival politicians or rival points of views. It became less interesting.
"On the positive side, at the same time, I was seeing the rise of social media... suddenly I realised that social media was making me a better journalist, and giving me the ability to ask questions I wouldn't have thought of myself."
Mark went on to found media firm Storyful, but after a number of years he said management realised they couldn't grow any more without more money.
He observed: "News Corp came along and were all about the editorial and journalism... and so we realised that to save the organisation and realised its potential we had to sell it.
"Once you sell that company it's no longer your company, and I realised that. But it did very well - we had 35 staff when we sold, and I think Storyful now has a couple of hundred people around the world."
Mark said his biggest regret in life is "not investing more time in friendships".
He also noted: "I think reports of my wealth are greatly exaggerated, I can tell you that.
"But by the same token I do feel the privilege of having security and freedom."
