Like a lot of you, my dad inspired me to build models, but not in a good way...
My dad was an alcoholic, and he very nearly killed me in a rage when I was four years old (although he was sober at the time). As you can imagine, I tried to avoid being near him as much as I could because of this.
The apartment we lived in also happened to be literally two doors down from a great hobby shop. I bought my first model there when I was five (an Airfix 1/72 scale Fokker Tri-plane), and found that building models was a great way to entertain myself while I was in my room (and away from dad).
Later on I joined the Boy Scout for the same reason - to get away from my dad for one whole weekend every month when my troop went on camping trips.
I still use model building to get away from the stresses of life.