British Paralympic swimmer, 2008–2021
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.
Recorded · The Telegraph · 2021
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.
59 people · 186 answers
When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do?
Financier; co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.
You have to do something like that to get rid of the tension, take your mind off what you are doing.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1991
President of Czechoslovakia 1989–1992; President of the Czech Republic 1993–2003; playwright and dissident
The kind of hope I often think about (especially in situations that are particularly hopeless, such as prison) I understand above all as a state of mind, not a state of the world.
Recorded · Václav Havel Library Foundation (havelcenter.org) · 1986
Novelist
Don’t panic.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Novelist, poet and critic
Don’t sit down in the middle of the woods. If you’re lost in the plot or blocked, retrace your steps to where you went wrong. Then take the other road. And/or change the person.
Recorded · The Guardian · 2010
Spanish professional tennis player, 2001–2024
Sometimes when I'm in the first round or second round, and I'm not playing well, I say, okay, just accept it. Don't get frustrated. Just accept and focus.
Recorded · CBS News / 60 Minutes · 2020
How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure?
Film director, producer and screenwriter; director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now
The Godfather was a very unappreciated movie when we were making it. They were very unhappy with it. They didn't like the cast. They didn't like the way I was shooting it.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1999
Journalist, essayist, screenwriter and film director
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.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 2007
Executive editor of The Washington Post, 1968–1991
We made one mistake in a story in which we said that — Woodward and Bernstein said — that there was a slush fund of $300,000 set up in the Committee to Re-elect the President, and it was…
Recorded · American Academy of Achievement · 2003
Film director, photographer and installation artist
I have never made any money from my films but I have won prizes and recognition. I have been on the margins forever.
Recorded · Eye For Film · 2018
Filmmaker; creator of Star Wars and founder of Lucasfilm
Whenever you’re making a movie, especially when you’re writing, you always have self-doubts. I did the first location shooting in Tunisia.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement · 1999
Former chief operating officer of Facebook; founder of LeanIn.org
Day one of my first job out of college, my boss found out that I didn't know how to enter data into Lotus 1-2-3. That's a spreadsheet—ask your parents.
Recorded · Los Angeles Times · 2016
What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it?
Essayist, critic and journalist
Deprivation of the ability to speak is more like an attack of impotence, or the amputation of part of the personality. To a great degree, in public and private, I “was” my voice.
Recorded · Vanity Fair · 2011
Chef and restaurateur
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.
Recorded · The Observer / The Guardian · 2025
Novelist and essayist
I try but I can’t think of a single aspect of having cancer, start to finish, that isn’t an act in a pantomime in which my participation is guaranteed however I believe I choose to play…
Recorded · London Review of Books · 2014
Civil-rights activist
Back in Montgomery during my growing up there, it was completely legally enforced racial segregation, and of course, I struggled against it for a long time.
Recorded · Academy of Achievement
Education campaigner; co-founder of the Malala Fund; United Nations Messenger of Peace
I had two options. One was to remain silent and wait to be killed. And the second was to speak up and then be killed. I chose the second one. I decided to speak up.
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation · 2014
44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
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.
Recorded · The White House (Obama administration archive) · 2013
In the last five years, what new belief, behaviour, or habit has most improved your life?
British professional tennis player, 2005–2024
I've never set out to be a spokesperson for women's equality.
Recorded · BBC News · 2017
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
In one month, two of my old prejudices were reversed. Two things that I was prejudiced against. I am now prejudiced towards, in favor of.
Recorded · Curious Humans · 2023
Novelist and screenwriter; Nobel laureate in Literature, 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…
Recorded · The Nobel Foundation (nobelprize.org) · 2017
Founder of Bridgewater Associates
I gained a humility that I needed in order to balance my audacity.
Recorded · TED · 2017
Chief executive of Alphabet and Google
It took me a while to realize that the internet would be the single best way to make technology accessible to more people.
Recorded · Google (The Keyword) · 2020
Co-chief executive and president of Ariel Investments
I told our Ariel team, we are not going to limp out of COVID. We're going to slingshot out of COVID.
Recorded · Center for Strategic and International Studies · 2024
What is the worst advice you received that you followed anyway?
Atmospheric chemist; Nobel laureate in Chemistry, 1995
I did. As a kid, I liked music. I still like it a lot of course. I used to play the violin. I did contemplate, well, maybe that’s an option. I could become a musician.
Recorded · Nobel Prize Outreach · 2014
Senator and comedian
Some of the worst advice I've been given doesn't sort of sound like terrible advice. And maybe it's the way I've internalized the advice.
Recorded · Fresh Air Archive · 2002
Novelist and screenwriter; author of The School for Good and Evil
This professor was obviously on the jury, and I wanted to stay the faculty’s blessed son, and so I trusted external validation at this point in my life more than my own creative compass.
Recorded · The Tim Ferriss Show · 2018
Founder of CD Baby; author of Anything You Want
The worst advice was to start a record label when I wanted to be a musician. It was smart advice. It could have made me more money, but it did not inspire me.
Recorded · Escape 9 to 5 · 2025
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