Simon Cowell admits his biggest failures have resulted from "believing his own hype."

The 52-year-old music and reality television mogul - who lost all his money in the late 80s and ended up living back at home with his mother - believes his ego has been his biggest downfall.

"I've had many failures. The biggest were at times when I believed my own hype. I'd had smaller failures, signing bands that didn't work, but my record company going bust, that was the first big one. I was a typical Eighties cliché. I had the cars, the house, the image and everything was beyond my means. I spent too much time at parties and then everything imploded. Amazingly, it felt quite a relief when it happened. It was the point when interest rates were 60 per cent, everything came crashing down. I got rid of everything - I had negative equity on my house. Losing everything is probably the greatest lesson you learn. I went back to my parents' house and started again. From then on everything I did was different. It was all about the work. I sold the Porsche, got a classic red TR6 for seven grand. I loved that car more than the Porsche."

But the multi-millionaire X Factor creator insists he still likes to take the occasional risk to keep things interesting: "Sometimes you throw a pebble in the water - occasionally a rock - just to wind everybody up. When things get a little too comfortable I get bored. And yes, it amuses me."