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.
Life is never fair.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 28 June 2025 source ↗
Block out the noise and trust your gut.
You are good enough.
I'm convinced that about half of what separates the successful entrepreneurs from the non-successful ones is pure perseverance. It is so hard. You put so much of your life into this thing. There are such rough moments in time that I think most people give up. I don't blame them. Its really tough and it consumes your life.
Evolve or perish.
Loving, creative, demanding.
One after the other, thoughts come banging in – and it’s no sleep for you tonight, dearie.
I play Classic FM in the car – emotional music brings me to tears thinking about people I’ve loved and lost.
In a Dagenham factory at 6am, picking soldiers’ greatcoats from wars around the world to sell at the market in Chelsea. I smelled like mothballs, and no one would come near me.
Carlos Acosta, for his incredible achievement in dance.
A Biba dress when I really couldn’t afford it. It was every scrap of my money and I’ve never parted with it.
Matthew Modine, Edward Enninful, Jo Nesbø, Kerry Godliman, John Simm, Frank Cottrell-Boyce
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