“Next! We’re looking for somebody else.”
What is the worst thing anyone has said to you?
Question
What is the most important lesson life has taught you?
Time & hindsight
Question
If you could edit your past, what would you change?
Failure & regret
Question
When was the last time you changed your mind about something?
Change of mind
Question
Aside from a property, what is the most expensive thing you have bought?
Money & investment
Question
Which moment embarrassed you most?
Failure & regret
Question
What is your greatest fear?
Identity & self
Originally asked
The Guardian, to a different person each week, The Q&A
A fixed Guardian Q&A prompt asked directly across respondents and years.
You answer as yourself. Nobody on FLAPSS answers as anybody else.
On X, I am regularly called a traitor, a fraud, a grifter, a weakling, a narcissist, a coward and a child molester.
The Q&A, The Guardian, 17 January 2026 source ↗
Others on this question
View all 122 →A lady came up to me in Tesco last year and said, “Excuse me, but didn’t you used to be Roger McGough?”
Eleanor Tomlinson
English actress
“You were amazing in Game of Thrones.” I say it’s the worst thing – it’s also the best!
An English teacher said, “You’ll never make anything of yourself.”
More from Rory Stewart
View profile →That I am not wise.
Moments of vanity, carelessness and unkindness.
The US election showed me that I had trapped myself in wishful thinking.
A painting of a man who was killed on the Dutch coast in 1600.
Having somebody pull my judo trousers down at a competition when I was seven. And finding I wasn’t wearing any pants.
I become very anxious if I think I’ve hurt someone.
More on failure & regret
- What has been your biggest disappointment? 366 answers
- Who most deserves an apology from you, and why? 209 answers
- If you could edit your past, what would you change? 203 answers
- Which moment embarrassed you most? 122 answers
- How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Do you have a favourite failure? 63 answers
- What is the hardest thing that has happened to you, and what did you carry out of it? 36 answers
Also answered this
Zack Polanski, Keir Starmer, Desmond Tutu, Jon Snow, Clive Myrie, Chris Bryant
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- All failure & regret questions
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