Emma Bunton
British singer
An English teacher, and then a dance teacher.
What did you want to be when you were growing up?
Question
What advice would you give your twenty-year-old self, and what should they ignore?
Time & hindsight
Question
What are you unwilling to optimise?
Values & belief
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments you have ever made — of money, time, or energy?
Money & investment
Question
What do you consider your greatest achievement?
Craft & work
Question
What is your favourite side project?
Craft & work
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
This is a standing question in The Guardian's decades-long The Q&A and also recurs independently in career and life interviews.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
That's what I've trained for, to be a professional footballer, and luckily enough that's what I've become
Paul Wilson, The Guardian, 13 June 2004 source ↗
Others on this question
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Edward Fox
British actor
To be able to play the piano like Artur Schnabel.
Belinda Carlisle
American singer
A travel agent, so I could see the world.
Kevin Pietersen
English cricketer
A pilot or a ranger in the bush.
More from Wayne Rooney
View profile →If you've been picked for your country you've been picked for a reason: because you're good enough. So go there, be yourself, keep doing what you've been doing for your club, and enjoy it.
I'm not going to be dieting or trying to lose any weight, because I want to be as strong as possible.
Looking back, if I was to go back in time, I probably would have sat out the World Cup because it was a big ask to get fit after six weeks out.
I think it was 2009/2010; I didn't score many headed goals. I spent about ten months practising after training, just working on my heading and then I went on a run of scoring 15 headed goals in a row.
This is right up there if not the best – to be your country’s all-time leading goal scorer before the age of 30 is something could never have dreamed of – I’m extremely proud tonight.
I used to love writing poems. Before I was with Coleen, just normal poems
More on identity & self
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Mo Farah, Peyton Manning, Ivan Lendl, Pete Rozelle, Gareth Bale, Chris Bonington
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