[user104658]

They're both right? Cowell is 100% correct - there are only three ways to end up with "serious" money. Being born into it, being brought into it by someone you know, or being entrepreneurial with a hefty dose of dumb luck (the vast majority of entrepreneurs amount to precisely zilch, and it has almost nothing to do with how hard they work or how good their ideas are). At the end of the day, all three amount to dumb luck. Lucky by birth, lucky by being in the right place at the right time, etc.

But Mr Gove warned that "only a fraction of kids get lucky".

Indeed. Also correct. Hence, the world? A fraction of kids "get lucky" and end up with the sort of money and influence that Cowell has. The rest of the world makes do with a relative pittance on different levels. Yes, you could abandon education completely and end up surviving on less than £15000 a year, or you could stick in and become a doctor on £60k... maybe more with a few decades experience... and live very comfortably. But let's face it - Cowell could piss 60k up the wall in 5 minutes and it would be like any of the rest of us dropping 10p in the street.

You don't get to be a Simon Cowell by "working hard at school, kids" or with good ol' fashioned grit and determination. You get there with simple luck. He's only being honest.