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 Bobbi Brown said elsewhere, not written here
You’re more capable than you think.

The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 October 2025 source ↗

Others on this question

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Mohamed ElBaradei Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, 1997-2009; Nobel Peace Prize 2005
I think that is the most important lesson you learn in life, that you have to be ready to make a compromise. You do not compromise your principles, but you have to be ready to compromise. You have to understand that you cannot get your way 100 percent. Life is too complicated. You are not an island, and you work in a social setting, and you need to understand that you work always — at the family level, at the society level — to work out the compromise that is perceived to be fair. You don’t get 100 percent of what you want, but at least you will get the basic minimum that you require.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, 2006 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 ↗
Derek Sivers Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
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.”
Recorded Essay on sive.rs, Derek Sivers, 21 July 2011 source ↗

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