I wanted to be in the circus.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Question
Which book are you ashamed not to have read?
Taste & recommendation
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
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Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
A hairdresser through the week and a star on the weekends.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 July 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
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John Lewis
U.S. Representative from Georgia, 1987–2020; Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee 1963–1966
When I was growing up I wanted to be a minister. I wanted to preach.
Before I knew what being an actor was, I wanted to be one.
Mathew Horne
English actor
I wanted to be a prosthetic makeup artist after watching A Nightmare On Elm Street.
More from Natalie Imbruglia
View profile →As an Italian, tinned spaghetti. As a child, I was once served it at someone’s house. It was quite frightening.
None. I’m not ashamed. I’m dyslexic so I don’t read a lot of books.
I’ve enjoyed every single job, including working at my dad’s chicken shop selling potato gems (fried potato circles) to the surfer dudes.
Be true to yourself.
Finally nailing being on time.
Forgetting the words to my own songs on stage. I’m a very good mumbler of my own songs. You’d be surprised how few people notice – if you smile and do it confidently, they’re none the wiser.
More on identity & self
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Marie Kondo, Fearne Cotton, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jess Phillips, Roger McGough, Angela Hartnett
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