Do you have any regrets in life? As we leave a balmy summer and enter autumn, the topic rises to the fore. Seemingly everyone has regrets — and it has probably been this way since recorded history.

The ancient Israelites regretted having fled Egypt as slaves and blamed Moses for their desert malaise. The American revolutionary spy Nathan Hale famously regretted "having but one life to give" for his new nation.

And the most acclaimed business leader of our time — Steven Jobs — regretted in a final interview that he had not been closer to his four children.