I don't believe in luck, I believe in preparation.
Interpretation
Success comes from being well-prepared rather than relying on chance.
Bobby Knight emphasizes that luck is not a reliable factor in achieving success; instead, thorough preparation and hard work are what lead to favorable outcomes. This perspective underscores the idea that one should focus on what can be controlled—preparation and effort—rather than leaving success to the whims of luck.
In practice
During a motivational speech to students about achieving their goals.
My dad was a very quiet person, and unbelievably tough. But my grandmother gave me my first look at negative thinking to bring about positive results. When I was just a little guy, anytime I came to my grandmother and said I wish for this or that, Grandma would say, 'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.'
Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature.
People want national championship banners. People want to talk about Indiana being competitive. How do we get there? We don't get there with milk and cookies.
When we're playing a good scoring center, we tell our team that it is not our defensive man's job to stop the center. It's the responsibility of our perimeter people to stop the ball from going inside.
Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try is in it own way success.
I'm not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot of attention paid to him that he shouldn't have, and then the athletes tend to think of themselves as better than they are.
Talent is a process, not a thing. Failure is not proof of an innate limit but rather is an indication of a skill we haven’t yet developed.
Your diamonds are not in far distant mountains or in yonder seas; they are in your own backyard, if you but dig for them.
Success is a result of consistent practice of winning skills and actions. There is nothing miraculous about the process. There is no luck involved.
In the development business doing something for both women and the environment is the equivalent of holding a royal flush in poker.
Writing careers are short. For every 100 writers, 99 never get published. Of those who do, only one in every hundred gets a career out of it, so I count myself as immensely privileged.
None of us got where we are solely by pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.