Failure & regret

What has been your biggest disappointment?

369 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 310 Politics and public life 25 Business and finance 11 Technology 1 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 54
Order Earliest first Most recent Surprise me
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 ↗
Nora Ephron Journalist, essayist, screenwriter and film director
The movies I made that didn't work.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 5 September 2009 source ↗
Ted Danson American actor
That I could not play college basketball due to lack of talent.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 April 2010 source ↗
Robin Gibb British singer
The way some of the music industry is being run now. Music is being treated as one big karaoke machine.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 31 July 2010 source ↗
Brenda Blethyn British actress
I was really disappointed not to be auditioned for Pride & Prejudice, but then they changed their minds and I got the part of Mrs Bennet.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 April 2012 source ↗
Isabella Rossellini Italian and American actress
That my children never met my parents. They were both dead by the time I became a mamma.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 December 2012 source ↗
Danny DeVito American actor, comedian and filmmaker
That the US, Britain and all these other bozos are still fighting wars all over the world.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 January 2013 source ↗
Kathleen Turner American actress
Getting ill. I am in remission [from rheumatoid arthritis], but there is no cure.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 10 May 2014 source ↗
Yusuf Islam British musician
Not making number one with Matthew And Son because of the Monkees.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 15 November 2014 source ↗

1 answer from members

Not being able to start my own company

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