“Because the will to win the game is not nearly as important as will the will to PREPARE to win the game.” –Bob Knight
"In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing." -Hank Aaron
“When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” -John Wooden
“Success is not a matter of just wanting to win. It’s a matter of preparing to win — which is much more important.” –Mike Krzyzewski
“I’ve always felt you can beat average, mediocre teams in a lot of ways. You can only beat good teams with good, solid basketball. My whole concern with everything we do is how will it work against the best teams — not in most games against most teams but in the biggest games against the best teams.” -Bob Knight
“When plans are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances fit in with them.” -Sir William Osler
"It's better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret." -Jacki Joyner-Kersee
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are, you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they may have planned for you? Not much.” -Jim Rohn
“Don’t just do something—sit there! Sit there long enough each morning to decide what is really important during the day ahead.” -Richard Eyre
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.” -William Wadsworth
“I’m passionate about the preparation. Each week, it’s starting over with a new opponent. Getting in there on a Sunday and watching film. The whole process of getting to know each team, who their best players are and what they do well. It’s always a different challenge. I also love the feelings of running through that tunnel before games. You’re nervous, you’re excited.” -Eli Manning
“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are, you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they may have planned for you? Not much.” -Jim Rohn
“Don’t just do something—sit there! Sit there long enough each morning to decide what is really important during the day ahead.” -Richard Eyre
"Set your compass in a chosen direction and then focus your attention and efforts completely on the journey of preparation. A successful journey becomes your destination and is where your real accomplishment lies." –John Wooden
"The art of war teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of the enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to receive him; not on the chance of his not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable." From "The Art of War," by Sun Tzu (Edited by James Clavell)
“The foundation of confidence in virtually every field is preparation.” -Brian Tracy
“You cannot speak that which you do not know. You cannot share that which you do not feel. You cannot translate that which you do not have. And you cannot give that which you do not possess. To give it and to share it, and for it to be effective, you first need to have it. Good communication starts with good preparation.” -Jim Rohn
“One of life's most painful moments comes when we must admit that we didn't do our homework, that we are not prepared.” -Merlin Olsen
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.”-Benjamin Disraeli
“The ideal attitude is to be physically loose and mentally tight.” -Arthur Ashe
“By chance, you will say, but chance only favors the mind which is prepared.” -Louis Pasteur
“What distinguishes winners is the will to prepare to win.” -Tony Jeary
“I will study and get ready, and perhaps my chance will come.” -Abraham Lincoln
“Miracles come in moments. Be ready and willing.” -Wayne Dyer
“When the will is ready the feet are light.” -Proverb
“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.” -Leon Joseph Cardinal Suenens
“If your're not practicing, somebody else is, somewhere, and he'll be ready to take your job.” -Brooks Robinson
"Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success." –Henry Ford
“The beautiful souls are they that are universal, open, and ready for all things” -Michel de Montaigne
"I've found that every minute spend in preparation saves ten in execution." –John Maxwell
“Losing doesn't eat at me the way it used to. I just get ready for the next play, the next game, the next season.” -Troy Aikman
“Great minds must be ready not only to take opportunities, but to make them.” -Charles Caleb Colton
"Real emotion is built up over time and its foundation is preparation." –Tom Landry
“The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when it comes.” -Benjamin Disraeli
"You can claim to be surprised once; after that, you're unprepared." -Anonymous
“Action springs not from thought, but from a readiness for responsibility.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“If we will be quiet and ready enough, we shall find compensation in every disappointment.” -Henry David Thoreau
“Pressure always hits hardest when you are unprepared. Preparation is pressure's greatest obstacle. Be prepared every time; in every way.” –Kevin Eastman
“I’ve never seen a player that didn’t want to win when the ball was tossed up...but I’ll tell you when better want to win — you’d better want to win the day before and two days before and three days before because the will to win the game is not nearly as important as will the will to PREPARE to win the game.” –Bob Knight
“Good luck is a product of good planning. Work hard to get ready for expected situations – events you know will happen. Equally important, plan and prepare for the unexpected.” –Bill Walsh
"I always though I played the game at the level that I was pleased with. I always tried to play as hard as I possibly could and I always prepared myself to play." -Larry Bird
“Spectacular achievements are always preceded by unspectacular preparation.” -Roger Staubach
"The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought." –Sun Tzu
"All that fire-up emotion is good, but any time we line up in a formation we're not prepared for, all that emotion won't do any good. We believe that a highly motivated team is a team that is basically very soundly prepared." –Tom Osborne
"To this day, I consider preparation the most enjoyable part of my work, and the most challenging. to the extent my teams have succeeded, I'd say that solid preparation -- not talent or strategy -- was the primary factor." -Bill Parcells
"Win or lose you will never regret working hard, making sacrifices, being disciplined, or focusing too much. Success is measured by what we have done to prepare for competition." -John Smith
“The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.” -John F. Kennedy
“I miss preparing the team for a big game, that’s what I miss.” –Jimmy Johnson (on what he missed after getting out of coaching)
“Failure to prepare is preparing to fail.” -John Wooden
“The most meaningful way to differentiate your company from your competition, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd, is to do an outstanding job with information. How you gather, manage, and use information will determine whether you win or lose.” –Bill Gates
“When opportunity comes, it’s too late to prepare.” -John Wooden
“While I prized preparation, planning, precision, and poise, I also knew that organizational ethics were crucial to ultimate and ongoing success.” –Bill Walsh
"You’ve heard the phrase “All’s well that ends well.” Here’s another that I believe is equally true: “All’s well that begins well!” -John Maxwell
“We always expect our opponents to play well.” –Bill Belichick
