Paterson Joseph
British actor and author
Pressing uniforms in a laundry. I was 14. I lied about my age and said I was 16, even though I probably looked about 12.
What is the worst job you have done?
Question
Which living person do you most admire, and why?
Values & belief
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
What has been your biggest disappointment?
Failure & regret
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
The Guardian's long-running Q&A repeatedly asks this standing question, with minor tense variation.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
Helping to slaughter farmyard animals as a kid; watching while my aunties cut them up to get their guts out and seeing eggs floating around in the hens. That made me become a vegetarian.
The Guardian, The Q&A, The Guardian, 18 December 2021 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 229 →
Mike Skinner
English rapper
Cleaning toilets in a motorway service station.
Working in a bottle factory, which lasted one day, and the Radio 1 breakfast show.
Michael Ball
English singer, presenter and actor
Handing out leaflets for a European coach trip wearing just lederhosen, in February and March in Surrey. It was freezing, and I got fired.
More from Shane MacGowan
View profile →Myself – why not?
I had this idiotic manager for a while who got me an Armani suit and then got the money off me.
I never set my sights that high, so I’m not disappointed with anything.
More on craft & work
- What do you consider your greatest achievement? 190 answers
- How do you know when a piece of work is finished? 67 answers
- What do you do when you feel creatively blocked or stuck? 66 answers
- How does a new work begin for you? 61 answers
- How much rewriting or revision do you do? 46 answers
- What is the part of your job that people would be surprised is most of your job? 40 answers
Also answered this · A–Z
Adrian Edmondson, Alison Moyet, Bill Bailey, Björn Ulvaeus, Bryn Terfel, Chaka Khan
Search the directory for somebody in particular.
Explore further
- All craft & work questions
- The The Q&A questionnaire — 25 questions from the same format
- Explore the archive — by field, age, era, and subject