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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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 169 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
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Warren Buffett Chairman and chief executive of Berkshire Hathaway, 1970–2025
In particular, my decision to sell McDonald's was a very big mistake. Overall, you would have been better off last year if I had regularly snuck off to the movies during market hours.
Recorded His letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders in the 1998 annual report, Berkshire Hathaway Inc., February 1999 source ↗
Gino D'Acampo Italian-British celebrity chef and media personality
I would have spent more time with my parents. I did see them often, but you don’t realise how much you’ll miss someone or something until it’s gone.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 3 December 2022 source ↗
Douglas Stuart Scottish fashion designer and novelist
My mother and my brother would still be alive. So much of my life has been coping with the grief of losing them.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 22 April 2023 source ↗

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