Mothers reveal all: The secrets to raising a successful child

Eve Branson, mother of the Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, runs the not-for-profit Eve Branson Foundation that provides training projects to local communities in Morocco.

 

Perched on a sofa in her West London apartment, Eve Branson recounts early memories of her son Richard. Disciplining him, it seems, was delicate business.

 "He was like a ball of fire as a little boy," the 90-year-old told me. "Like a thoroughbred. You didn't want to pull the reins too hard and spoil him, spoil his adventures and his madness but you had to pull a little bit."

His single-mindedness began to reveal itself when he was just three or four, she recalls. Branson ran off and hid at a local farmer's house after a strong reprimand. "Eventually someone rang to say 'We've got a little blue-eyed boy here? Does he belong to you?' Gosh was I relieved."

 

Here, Eve Branson is pictured with her children Richard, Vanessa and Lindy in a photograph from 1959.

 

Now, her son has a knighthood, is worth more than $5 billion according to Forbes and is one of the world's most able -- if eccentric -- entrepreneurs.

But what was the secret to such success?

Does tough love breed success or is support and encouragement key to raising tomorrow's tycoons?

I set out to answer these questions in a series of interviews with the mothers of sports stars, tech pioneers and rockers and discovered they had many traits in common.

Branson, it seems, was not the only budding businessman with a mind of his own.