British Paralympic swimmer, 2008–2021
Recorded · The Telegraph · 2021
When I was in Beijing, London, and also in Rio I was still a kid really, I didn't feel pressure. Now I'm a 26 year old woman. Being a lot older I feel those expectations.
Stuck
For a bad week. What people do when they cannot think straight, what they carried out of the worst thing that happened to them, and what turned out later to have been the beginning of something.
25 people · 152 answers
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Anti-apartheid lawyer; Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2009
I would try to keep myself going by inventing games, and I would sing songs, a song beginning with “A,” “Always.” “Because,” “Charmaine,” “Daisy,” go through the alphabet. ...
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1940–1945 and 1951–1955; Member of Parliament 1900–1964
Recorded · International Churchill Society · 1941
You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done.
Composer, record producer and visual artist
Recorded · Telekom Electronic Beats · 2011
My favorite method is stopping everything for a moment. It’s amazing how difficult I find it these days to simply sit quietly.
Novelist
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Don’t panic.
United States artistic gymnast
Recorded · Rev · 2021
Yes. Today has been really stressful. We had a workout this morning. It went okay. And then just that five and a half hour wait or something. I was just shaking, could barely nap.
How has a setback or failure set you up for later success?
American physician-scientist
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2000
about 95% of the experiments we do are total failures, and that’s because we’re out there on the leading edge of what’s possible, and most of the time it isn’t quite possible.
Dog musher; four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
I feel that because I challenge myself so often, sometimes I will fail. This is, to me, the essence of competition — that there will be both winners and losers.
Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
Recorded · Berkshire Hathaway Inc. · 1990
My first mistake, of course, was in buying control of Berkshire. Though I knew its business - textile manufacturing - to be unpromising, I was enticed to buy because the price looked cheap.
Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
Recorded · Stanford News (Stanford University) · 2005
I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me.
Novelist, poet and critic; twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1999
I was prepared to fail. I was prepared to not be able to get things accepted, because I saw that happen to my mother.
Journalist, essayist, screenwriter and film director
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2007
I wish I had learned more from failure than just mortification. I don’t think you learn much from success, and I don’t think you learn much from failure, unfortunately.
What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it?
Chef and restaurateur
Recorded · The Observer / The Guardian · 2025
I moved to Argentina, then back to Tokyo and then to Anchorage, in Alaska, where I ran a restaurant. After 50 days the restaurant burnt down – an electrical fire. I lost my dream.
Writer and human rights advocate; Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1986
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 1996
After the war — I was 15 when I entered the camp, I was 16 when I left it, and all of a sudden you become an orphan and you have no one.
Playwright, director and actor
Recorded · The Paris Review, Issue 111, Summer 1989 · 1985
I don’t think I could. Of course I’m saying this on American soil. I’m facing a few more months of work in this city, but at the end of it, I will be returning to South Africa.
Playwright, poet and novelist; Nobel laureate in Literature, 1986
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2009
Writing became a therapy. First of all, it meant I was reconstructing my own existence. It was also an act of defiance. I wasn’t supposed to write. ...
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Recorded · The White House (Obama administration archive) · 2013
I was raised by a heroic single mom, wonderful grandparents -- made incredible sacrifices for me. … But I sure wish I had had a father who was not only present, but involved.
Baseball centre fielder; twice National League Most Valuable Player
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1996
I was the first black in that particular league. And, we played in a town called Hagerstown, Maryland. ...
In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?
Co-founder and chief executive of Zerodha
Recorded · Nithin Kamath's blog · 2022
Sleeping by 9 pm & getting a workout at 5 am has been helpful. Sleeping early reduces the chances of bingeing when we are drained and have low self-control at the end of the day.
Comedian, television presenter and artist
Recorded · The Observer / The Guardian · 2024
Every year I get more of an understanding of what I need to be happy. If I haven’t slept enough, or if I haven’t exercised, I’m more likely to be in a bad mood.
United States international footballer, 2001–2015
Recorded · Speakola · 2018
You see, soccer didn't make me who I was. I brought who I was to soccer, and I get to bring who I am wherever I go. And guess what? So do you.
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2012
You'll see I wear only gray or blue suits. … I'm trying to pare down decisions. I don't want to make decisions about what I'm eating or wearing.
President of Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009–2023; chairman from 2023
Recorded · Babson College (Babson Thought & Action) · 2019
Even I can't predict what kind of car we will be driving 20 years from now, but my time at Babson taught me to embrace change rather than run from it, and I urge all of you to do the same.
Novelist and screenwriter; Nobel laureate in Literature, 2017
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org) · 2017
The reason why so many vivid, undeniably convincing characters in novels, films and plays so often failed to touch me was because these characters didn’t connect to any of the other…
Everyone here · A–Z
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Charlie Munger, Chris Hoy, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, David Vélez, Derek Sivers, Edmund Hillary, George H. W. Bush, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, John Lewis, Malala Yousafzai, Mario Molina, Mellody Hobson, Mohamed ElBaradei, Neil Gaiman, Oliver Sacks, Richard Feynman, Shinya Yamanaka, Simone Biles, Steve Jobs, Tony Judt, Warren Buffett, Winston Churchill