Richard Branson
English business magnate
Northern Rock, and not winning the bid to take on the lottery.
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Question
Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?
Identity & self
Question
What keeps you awake at night?
Daily life
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
When were you happiest?
Time & hindsight
Question
How would you describe yourself in three words?
Identity & self
Question
Who most deserves an apology from you, and why?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This exact question recurs in The Guardian's institutional Q&A pool.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
When a relationship I’ve been invested in stops working. And yet, here I am, happy as you like.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 16 March 2024 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 368 →
Jake Shears
Singer and songwriter; co-lead vocalist of Scissor Sisters
The realisation that I am no longer young.
Monty Don
English horticulturist, broadcaster, and writer
At the time, losing our business, home and all our possessions in 1991 after the failure of our jewellery company. But if that had not happened then other good things would not have happened, either.
Nish Kumar
British stand-up comedian and presenter
In the last couple of years, Britain.
More from Keren Woodward
View profile →I am a bit of a procrastinator.
Sleep apnoea and tinnitus.
Persevering with a career that was predicted to last six months and still being here four decades later.
The last few years. There’s a beauty to getting to an age where you really don’t care about stuff that used to bother you.
Kind, funny, moany – I do love a moan.
I’ve apologised to my son, Thomas, for being absent for quite a lot of his first few years, but, as a working mother and breadwinner, I kind of had to be. I like to think I’ve made up for it.
More on failure & regret
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 205 answers
- What is the worst thing anyone has said to you? 124 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 123 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 73 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 37 answers
Also answered this
Serena Williams, Christy Turlington Burns, Caroline Lucas, Adrian Scarborough, Eve Ensler, Rory Bremner
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