A Broadway theater filled with nothing but critics.
What is your greatest fear?
Question
What is the trait you most deplore in others?
Values & belief
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
Question
What do you value most in your friends?
Relationships
Question
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
Vanity Fair, to its interview subject, The Proust Questionnaire
The exact prompt is fixed in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire and independently sustained in The Guardian's The Q&A over multiple decades.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Years ago, before I had my current manager, I was taken advantage of by people I’d trusted with my finances. That’s made me especially sensitive to the prospect of financial ruin. I’m constantly advising young athletes to be vigilant when it comes to whom you trust with your finances.
Vanity Fair, The Proust Questionnaire, Vanity Fair, August 2020 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 266 →Every actor has the same fear – ie, you’re never going to work again.
Julian Clary
English actor, comedian, novelist and presenter
Running out of Molecule cologne.
Crashing in an aeroplane into an ocean at night.
More from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
View profile →Dishonesty. It destroys relationships. It’s something celebrities especially have to guard against because people are prone to tell you what they think you want to hear rather than the truth.
My college years, when everything was possible and I felt physically invulnerable.
Laziness. After 30 years of being a disciplined athlete with an intensely tight schedule, I still can’t forgive myself for letting things slide.
Being surrounded by my friends and family. Just listening to them interacting, laughing, sharing. It is the culmination of everything I could have hoped for.
Loyalty. Not fawning, but a loyalty based on our shared love and history that fosters compassion and forgiveness.
I had self doubts when I was a freshman in high school. I was 14 years old and not very mature, and there were a few incidents in my freshman year. I learned in a very competitive environment. The high school environment that I played in was very intense, and I learned how to be stoic and go out and compete.
Recorded
Academy of Achievement interviewer, Academy of Achievement interview, 1 January 1989
source ↗
More on identity & self
- Which trait do you most dislike in yourself? 252 answers
- What did you want to be when you were growing up? 204 answers
- What most recently made you cry? 193 answers
- What is your idea of perfect happiness? 161 answers
- How would you describe yourself in three words? 114 answers
- What are you most proud of? 109 answers
Also answered this
Derek Jeter, Paul Merson, Rafael Nadal, Scottie Pippen, Ally McCoist, Serena Williams
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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