We are not here for long – try not to take everything too seriously.
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What is the worst job you have done?
Craft & work
Question
What would you like to be remembered for?
Death & what remains
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 ↗
Others on this question
View all 137 →
Pauline McLynn
Irish character actress and author
Never be rigid in your thinking, be open.
If it scares you, do it.
Steve Jobs
Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
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.
Recorded
Daniel Morrow, Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories, for the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program, 20 April 1995
source ↗
More from Arlene Phillips
View profile →Carlos Acosta, for his incredible achievement in dance.
Each time I gave birth.
Loving, creative, demanding.
A Biba dress when I really couldn’t afford it. It was every scrap of my money and I’ve never parted with it.
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.
Kind, thoughtful and gave damn good advice.
More on time & hindsight
- When were you happiest? 577 answers
- What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore? 78 answers
- What scares you about getting older? 61 answers
- What is the best advice you have ever received? 28 answers
- If you could have a gigantic billboard anywhere, what would it say and why? 23 answers
- What is something you were told by a parent, teacher, or mentor that you still repeat to yourself? 23 answers
Also answered this
Roger McGough, Phoebe Dynevor, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Isabel Allende, Fearne Cotton, Bill Clinton
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- All time & hindsight questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject