The question
What lesson has mattered most in your life?Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
Verbatim recurring item in The Guardian Q&A; two fully readable publisher-hosted respondent pages establish institutional recurrence.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
You are good enough.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 December 2025 source ↗
To stand up tall and aim for what you want.
Be kind and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
My mentor heard it and said, “Derek, you’re just not a singer. You really need to stop trying. Admit you’re a songwriter, and find a real singer.”
To be led by love and not judgment.
“You’ll never, ever work.” When you are young and full of hopes and dreams it’s devastating. I am just grateful that I thought: “Well, I’m going to try.”
Lemn Sissay. What happened to him and what he’s done with his life is extraordinary.
Speedy, bossy, loving.
Magician’s assistant on a cruise ship for two weeks when I was 19. When I was meant to be being levitated, I was silently crying while pretending to be unconscious as I hung limply off a metal pole. It was bleak.
A glow of wellbeing.
Very impatient, bossy, always late.
Daphne Guinness, Desmond Tutu, Billy Crudup, Sally Lindsay, Jason Donovan, Natalie Imbruglia
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