Failure & regret

What has been your biggest disappointment?

387 answers answered between 1991 and 2026 one of 25 in 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 4 Arts and letters 318 Politics and public life 28 Business and finance 12 Technology 1 Sport 23
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Angela Eagle British politician
Being phoned by the prime minister and sacked from my role as a home office minister in front of 100 people I was about to speak to. But to be fair to Tony, he did appoint me in the first place.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 20 April 2012 source ↗
Barack Obama 44th President of the United States, 2009–2017; United States Senator from Illinois 2005–2008
If you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws. Even in the face of repeated mass killings. … And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months.
Recorded Jon Sopel, BBC News interview, the White House, 24 July 2015 source ↗
Samira Ahmed British journalist and writer
When I was a 26-year-old news correspondent, the head of BBC news gathering, Chris Cramer, refused to let me take up a six-month attachment on the foreign affairs programme Correspondent. He said: “I think it’s too soon; you could do it later.” He’d never have said that to a man.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 January 2022 source ↗

1 answer from members

Not being able to start my own company

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