I would laugh more. I don’t laugh enough.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Question
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Daily life
Question
Which teacher, parent, coach or friend most made you who you are, and what did you learn from them?
Relationships
Question
What have you come to understand about what it means to be human?
Values & belief
Question
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Time & hindsight
Question
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Identity & self
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
Verbatim recurring item in Vanity Fair's Proust Questionnaire; two publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
What I would do differently? When I went through school, I was in a hurry. I was an economics major as an undergraduate, and I was a finance major in graduate school. I was in a hurry to succeed when I got out in the business world. I’m sorry I didn’t take more courses in the humanities and in history and in the arts.
Academy of Achievement, 12 February 1991 source ↗
Others on this question
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Melissa Etheridge
Singer, songwriter and guitarist
Again, not gonna change anything about myself. I’ve really learned to appreciate everything. Okay, maybe I’d be taller. How about that?
Being too open and generous to those who don’t deserve it.
My tendency to worry about the future if there’s nothing you can do about it.
More from Henry R. Kravis
View profile →You have to do something like that to get rid of the tension, take your mind off what you are doing.
I had a teacher who was a great influence on me, when I was in boarding school at Loomis, Jim Wilson. He was my economics teacher and he was also my dorm head. I didn’t know what economics was before I took this course. I was really moved by the course. I was moved by him. That’s probably one of the reasons I chose the field of business.
today, I'm a very happy man, not because of financial success, but because of the people in my life.
My father tried to make me think twice. "Son, calm down," he said. "Stick it out."
Our wedding day is tied with the births of my three children as the best days of my life.
We have made many investments in our history. Not all have succeeded. As entrepreneurs willing to take some risk, we have made many mistakes. But when we are successful, we leave the company better than we found it.
More on identity & self
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- 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
Also answered this
Derek Sivers, Charlie Munger, Mellody Hobson, Isaac Mizrahi, Cyndi Lauper, Gina Lollobrigida
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- All identity & self questions
- The The Proust Questionnaire questionnaire — 5 questions from the same format
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