Failure & regret

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

205 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.

You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.

Add your answer

On the record

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 3 Arts and letters 171 Politics and public life 17 Business and finance 5 Technology 1 Sport 8
Read by age Any age Before thirty 6 In their thirties 39 In their forties 45 In their fifties 45 In their sixties 37 Seventy and beyond 28
Order Earliest first Most recent Surprise me
Rita Ora British singer-songwriter
That I didn’t think I knew everything.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 August 2015 source ↗
James Bay English singer-songwriter and guitarist
I couldn’t do it. I realised recently that all the things that have gone wrong are just as important as all the things that went right.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 9 January 2016 source ↗
Laura Kenny English cyclist
I would have spent every single day with my sister before she left to live in New Zealand. At my wedding, it was the first time I had seen her in two and a half years.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 21 January 2017 source ↗
Simone Biles United States artistic gymnast
Nothing. Everything has led me to who and where I am now.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 25 February 2017 source ↗
Adwoa Aboah British fashion model
Nothing. Everything’s got me to this point and I had to learn lots of things. Maybe I just wouldn’t have been so terrified all the time and I would have got up a bit earlier – I missed quite a few mornings.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 2 March 2019 source ↗

0 answers from members

Nobody has answered this one yet.

More on failure & regret