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How to raise....a millionaire
 How do you raise a child to keep you in the manner to which you'd like to become accustomed? Some of Britain's best-known entrepreneurs remember influences from their own childhoods which made them what they are today.
Untie your apron strings
'My mother was determined to make us independent. When I was four, she stopped the car a few miles from our house and made me find my own way home across the fields.'
Richard Branson
Start with a little
'I suspect that my determination to succeed was driven by wanting to improve on my start in life. I had an incredibly poor childhood, as the second eldest of seven children from the Clydebank area of Scotland. When I was born in 1949, we were one of six families crammed into a six-bedroom terrace house all sharing one lavatory.'
Duncan Bannatyne
Start with a lot
'My father was in the shipping industry back in Greece and gave me a good start in life. When people assume that I'm a "rags-to-riches" story they are sadly mistaken!'
Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou
Be different
'We were the only Italian immigrants in this little blue-collar town, and we were outsiders. My mother was the most eccentric and extraordinarily beautiful woman, and a young widow at 39, so she had this dramatic aura around her. She raised 4 kids by herself. I remember her hating the priest because she didn't want to give my father a Catholic burial. She was an atheist and she was annoyed at sending the kids to church so she spread garlic all over our coats so it would stink up half the church. We were pushed into exercises of bravery. You couldn't be a meek and mild person with my Mum around.'
Anita Roddick
Encourage creativity
'You'd come home and there'd be some wooden boxes in the back garden, with a rug over them wired up to look like it was rippled, and a sheet pinned to the apple tree. My dad would go, 'Just sit there for a minute, son, before you go in to do your homework.' And there you were on a flying carpet.'
Sir Paul Smith
Work for yourself
''My dad was a wage earner. But Uncle John showed me that there was another way to live – working for yourself… My priority was to be self-sufficient and independent. I didn’t have big ambitions. I simply knew that I didn’t want to work for a boss and I set myself targets to earn in excess of my working-class background.'
Sir Alan Sugar
Get them working for you
''Boxing was my life…But my mum wanted to me join the family’s dry cleaning business. She won the argument. My parents were happy running the one shop, but my enthusiasm drove us forward. We pretty soon opened another six shops.'
Real estate mogul Andreas Panayiotou
Be tough
'My mother had absolutely no time for self-pity. I'm the same...move on. Get on and do it, because nobody else is going to do it for you. I think that whole culture has been instilled in me. I am responsible for my life. There's no point whingeing about it, get on and make of it what you will.'
Dragon's Den Deborah Meaden
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