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.

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 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
Order Earliest first Most recent Surprise me
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 ↗
Judy Murray Scottish tennis coach
When I was 17, I was offered a tennis scholarship at the University of Virginia. I wish I had been brave enough to take it.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 12 December 2020 source ↗
Ronnie O'Sullivan English snooker player
I would go back to when I was 14 and keep to my own style of playing snooker. I was perfect, but I didn’t think I was, so I started playing like everybody else and created bad habits. With a little more time, I could have been the ultimate player. I look at my career and I probably got 75% out of it instead of 100%.
Recorded The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 13 May 2023 source ↗

0 answers from members

Nobody has answered this one yet.

More on failure & regret