What is the most important lesson life has taught you?

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.

Recorded Robert Carlyle said elsewhere, not written here
To stand up tall and aim for what you want.

The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2008 source ↗

Others on this question

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Warren Buffett Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
The number one rule I give them is just not give them the golden rule. Do unto others, I'm not a religious guy, but, I mean, nobody said it any better in a couple thousand years than that, which may be why it's lasted to a certain degree too. I mean, more people are reading a 2000-year-old book about how to behave than anything that anybody's coming up with lately. Now it's got a lot of, particularly the Old Testament, it's got different kinds of stories, to some extent, but if the whole world lived by the golden rule, it would be such a more wonderful society.
Recorded Becky Quick, Interview at the 2026 Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting; CNBC's own transcript of its own broadcast, 2 May 2026 source ↗
Shobna Gulati
If somebody doesn’t want to understand or see you that’s on them. You don’t have to carry that with you.
Recorded The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 October 2025 source ↗

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