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Failure & regret

What disappointment has stayed with you longest?

367 answers answered between 1995 and 2026 one of 25 in The Q&A

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The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A

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Public figures who have answered a question like this elsewhere. Quoted from the source shown, not written for FLAPSS.

Read by field Everyone Science and medicine 2 Arts and letters 309 Politics and public life 26 Business and finance 10 Sport 19
Read by age Any age Before thirty 16 In their thirties 58 In their forties 82 In their fifties 81 In their sixties 73 Seventy and beyond 55
Order Earliest first Most recent Surprise me
George H. W. Bush 41st President of the United States, 1989–1993
When I lost a race for the United States Senate, I thought the world was going to end for me politically, and 18 years later I was elected President of the United States. The biggest disappointment was that I wasn't able to communicate properly to the American people — with the proper conviction and the proper ability — where the country really stood. The pessimists, the naysayers, the change-wanters overwhelmed me, and I wasn't good enough. I wasn't articulate enough to have the country understand that we weren't in a recession, that we were in a rather booming economy in the last half of my presidency. That was a personal shortcoming, a failure on my path.
Recorded Academy of Achievement interview, Williamsburg, Virginia, 2 June 1995 source ↗
Jimmy Savile English media personality and sex offender
Never having been a 100% sex symbol. I only managed 99.9%.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 May 2007 source ↗
Ed Harris American actor and director
The distribution of Copying Beethoven in the US.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 11 August 2007 source ↗
David Schwimmer American actor
The lack of role models in leadership in the US, in particular our government.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 September 2007 source ↗
Pamela Anderson Canadian-American actress and model
That after I collected countless signatures on a petition, the Queen's Guard still wear bearskin hats.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 January 2008 source ↗
Boy George British musician
Getting arrested in New York and discovering how lacking in morality US law enforcers are. Being handcuffed to a metal trolley in Bellevue Hospital because I cut my foot while being dragged from a police car, and listening to nurses chatting about hair products as I screamed for something to stop me hallucinating.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 February 2008 source ↗
Camille Paglia American feminist academic and critic
The shocking decline of artistic quality in Hollywood movies over the past 15 years.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 April 2008 source ↗
Ranulph Fiennes English explorer
An angina attack 300 metres below the summit ridge of Everest in 2005, having spent 72 days getting that far.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 May 2008 source ↗
Ed Balls British broadcaster and politician
That my competitive pole vault career ended at the age of 15.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 November 2008 source ↗
Philip Glass American composer
I don't know. I was lucky; I was able to study with the people I wanted to, be friends with the people I wanted to and in the end I've been able to make a living the way I wanted to.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 November 2008 source ↗
Richard Hammond English journalist, television presenter, and author
Failing my driving test first time; that was a disappointment on a geological scale.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 January 2009 source ↗

1 answer from members

Not being able to start my own company

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