Who has had a strong impact on Willy?

At the end
of the play, Willy is deeply influenced by his son Biff to commit suicide. He loves Biff dearly
and wants him to be financially successful in the way he himself has never been. Therefore,
having no money, he gives Biff his life so that Biff can collect Willy's insurance money. (To be
perfectly clear, Biff in no way wants his father to do this: this all comes out of Willy's ideas
of the good life for his child.)

Normally, we think of people being
influenced by older mentors, as Willy is by his brother and Dave Singleman, people who, at least
in his fantasies, achieved financial success with ease and were able to sit back and watch the
money roll in.

Willy wants to pass this idea of easy money onto his sons,
especially football star Biff. Would Willy have followed his true, more modest vocation of
gardening if he were not influenced by having sons to impress with a more flamboyant kind of
financial successa success he never can achieve?

Of course, Willy does
nothing but destroy his sons' lives by trying to model for them a false idea of what success is.
Even at the end, when he is influenced by his love for Biff to kill himself, it seems his values
are in the wrong place. Again, it is all money that matters and money that he thinks will solve
his son's problems, whereas they are probably beyond what money can buy.