Kiwi mum reveals HOW TO RAISE A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE

Auckland mother Paula reveals her secrets to bringing up successful children

- Hayley McLarin

Oprah Winfrey once declared, “No is a complete sentence.” If ever there was an antithesis, it’s Paula Beaton, a formidable single mum from Auckland for whom “yes” is also a complete sentence.

An eternal optimist, she approaches everything with the same dogged determination that saw her raise her son Jamie to achieve everything he possibly could, including being accepted into all 25 of the world’s top universities.

He went on to finish degrees at Harvard and Yale before he was 21. Now, at 26, he’s worth $674 million, based in New York and is providing the tools for other Kiwis to follow in his footsteps.

“I counted my blessings and was really grateful to be able to have Jamie,” Paula tells Woman’s Day. “The challenges along the way were pretty easy to overcome. As a parent, you’ve got to not feel that it’s a sacrifice.”

Paula was nearing 30 and running a property management company when she discovered she was pregnant – the same day she and her husband separated.

With her ex not a part of Jamie’s life, Paula threw herself into parenthood with the support of her parents John and Sarah, who lived with Paula, helping her to encourage Jamie in all he wanted to do.

An only child, Jamie recalls, “Even when I was around nine, Mum would be training me in history for my exam while we were eating at a Wendy’s in Ota-huhu. She’d learn all the content and know it as well as I did, if not more. She was amazingly involved.”