Which trait do you most dislike in yourself?

Nobody has ever accused me of being a superior communicator. If I could have conveyed to the American people the concerns I had, and my heartbeat, a little more clearly, maybe I would not be unemployed and retired. And I might not be this happy, either. I learned a lot from Ronald Reagan about communication. Never got to be in his league in terms of it, but he could say something and the American people might not agree with the issue, but they could empathize with him.

A willingness to go with my gut feeling, rather than wait a day and contemplate other options.

Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down. I had a tendency sometimes to make excuses for me not doing the right thing.

Self-absorption.

I had to ask people about this, because I couldn’t think of anything, and the consensus seems to be: a general lack of self-awareness.

Absentmindedness.

I’m not into self-deploring.

Biting my nails.

My tendency to skip meals.

Vic, my wife, has over the years reduced my impatience, but anybody who has been in a traffic jam with me will know that she hasn’t completed the task yet.

Self-centredness.

I very often set my heart on things – and if they don’t happen, I’m not great at dealing with disappointment.

Impatience and vanity.

Doomscrolling on my phone.

Being too thin-skinned.

I thought that I had lost for a reason, and I thought that I was a little unseasoned and immature, and I had — the way I made decisions my first term, I got a lot done, but I was better at doing what I wanted to do than listening to other people about what they thought I should be doing or how they thought I ought to be doing it.