Simon Cowell: Music Mogul

I always respected tough love. Most of the time people aren't very good, you have to be honest. And what I wasn't gonna do. was change who I was just because I was on TV. I wasn't gonna lie to these people and say, Oh, I think you're amazing and everything's gonna happen because I knew the reality. It's hard enough if you can sing. I mean it's impossible if you can't sing.

Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements. They built. I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today, how Simon Cowell used sharp business skills and blunt opinions. To become one of the best known music moguls. in the world.

Back in 2010, a 16-year-old kid walked onto the stage of the talent TV show X Factor. He was charming, polite, and slightly nervous. He told the judges about his part time job at a bakery, and then, with no music to back him, he launched into a pretty shaky a cappella version of Stevie Wonder's Isn't She Lovely. After he finished, one of the judges paused, looked straight at him, and said, With a little vocal coaching? This cube could actually be pretty good. That teenager.

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