Failure & regret

If you could edit your past, what would you change?

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

Originally asked

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

Repeated verbatim in The Guardian's long-running Saturday Q&A; two publisher-hosted examples establish recurrence.

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On the record

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

Steve Jobs Co-founder and chief executive of Apple; co-founder of NeXT; chief executive of Pixar
But the market was changing. The industry was changing. The scale was changing. And in the end we knew we would be either the last company to make it or the first to not make it. We were right on the edge. We thought we would be the last one that made it, but we were wrong. We were the first one that didn't. We put an end to the companies that tried to do that. We certainly made our fair share of mistakes, but in the end I think we should have taken a bit longer to realize the world was changing and just gone on to be a software company right off the bat.
Recorded Daniel Morrow, Smithsonian Institution Oral and Video Histories, for the Computerworld Smithsonian Awards Program, 20 April 1995 source ↗
Robert Carlyle Scottish actor
I'd have concentrated a bit more at school and maybe gone to university rather than drama school.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 23 February 2008 source ↗
Omid Djalili British stand-up comedian and actor
I'd edit out all the wrong people I surrounded myself with socially and professionally whom I thought I had to tolerate.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 7 August 2010 source ↗
Sofie Gråbøl Danish actress
I'd have a good, encouraging start in school – I think I'd be a different person, with fewer anxiety attacks.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 26 July 2014 source ↗
Dermot O'Leary British-Irish television presenter
I had my heart broken a lot in my teens, but I'm not sure I'd change it.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 6 September 2014 source ↗
Heather Graham American actress
I spent too many years being hard on myself, like a drill sergeant in my head. I thought that if I was hard on myself, I’d get more results, but I now know that’s not true.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 19 March 2016 source ↗
Isla Fisher Australian actress
I would have tried that anti-stretch mark cream during pregnancy.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 30 July 2016 source ↗
Sadiq Khan Mayor of London since 2016
I would have had more time with my dad before he passed away.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 24 September 2016 source ↗
The public mistakes I’ve made. Most recently, I tried to light an e-cigarette on an aeroplane and was told to put it out. I completely forgot I was on a plane. I’d had, like, three drinks, but it only takes three. I stopped as soon as I got off and I got straight back into my programme, because that’s what I do.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 4 August 2018 source ↗
Carlos Acosta Cuban ballet dancer
The time I told my father I hated him, causing him a lot of pain. He passed away six years ago, and my mother eight years ago.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 29 September 2018 source ↗
Rose McGowan American actress and activist
I wouldn’t have taken that meeting [with Weinstein in 1997].
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 8 December 2018 source ↗
Ralf Little English actor, writer, former semi-professional footballer
I wouldn’t have tried to break up a fight when I was 17.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 1 February 2020 source ↗

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