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The question

As a child, what career or life did you imagine for yourself?

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.

Mellody Hobson

Co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments

Recorded said elsewhere, not written here
And all the while I was growing up, of course, there were just constant conversations about money and money being tight and how are we going to make ends meet and sometimes not having enough money. And it really just made me committed to living a life with much more financial security.

Farai Chideya, News & Notes, Leading Ladies series, NPR, 22 March 2007 source ↗

Others on this question

View all 197 →
David Harewood British actor and presenter
I had no idea. When I was a week away from leaving school, a teacher said, “We’ve been talking in the staffroom and we all think you should be an actor.” I thought, “That’s exactly what I want.” The rest is history.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 November 2019 source ↗
Andrew O'Hagan Scottish author
Most days, I wanted to be Albrecht in the classical ballet Giselle, dancing until I dropped dead.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 July 2026 source ↗

More from Mellody Hobson

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Question What does everyone in your world seem to agree on that you think is wrong? Values & belief
You see, researchers have coined this term "color blindness" to describe a learned behavior where we pretend that we don't notice race. If you happen to be surrounded by a bunch of people who look like you, that's purely accidental. Now, color blindness, in my view, doesn't mean that there's no racial discrimination, and there's fairness. It doesn't mean that at all. It doesn't ensure it. In my view, color blindness is very dangerous because it means we're ignoring the problem.
Recorded TED2014, 20 March 2014 source ↗
Question What is one of the best investments you have made — of money, time, or energy? Money & investment
Our business everyday is to make money for people. And I take it as seriously as doctors who are trying to cure cancer, because by giving people financial freedom, we allow them to do great things in their lives - from retire to send their kids to college, to buy their first house, to fund a business that they might want to start.
Recorded Farai Chideya, News & Notes, Leading Ladies series, NPR, 22 March 2007 source ↗
Question How does a new piece of work usually begin for you? Craft & work
So I started with this idea of could we do private equity totally differently than had been done? One of the major features of what we do is something called demand aggregation, where we go to corporations and what we call the CPO, the purchasing officers of those - chief purchasing officers. We developed a council of Fortune 500 companies.
Recorded Kathleen J. McInnis, Smart Women, Smart Power podcast, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 28 August 2024 source ↗
Question What accomplishment matters most to you? Craft & work
I remember the day. It was just such a big day. It happened to be the same day that I got to be on the cover of Forbes. And I remember just being so overwhelmed by the opportunity that we had at hand, that we had closed this $1.45 billion fund - first time - probably in the top five of first-time funds ever that had been closed.
Recorded Kathleen J. McInnis, Smart Women, Smart Power podcast, Center for Strategic and International Studies, 28 August 2024 source ↗

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