Not John Wooden — an anonymous proverb he repeatedAnonymous proverbEarliest documented in print, January 1919 · spread by Robert H. Schuller, John Wooden (1910–2010) and others from the 1970s
John Wooden did say a version of this line — “When you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail” — in a speech at Texas Tech in January 1977, and SUCCESS magazine’s TheWoodenEffect.com, produced in cooperation with the Wooden family, still lists the polished wording among his quotes. But he did not coin it. Quote Investigator ↗ traces the adage in print to January 1919, when Wooden was eight years old, and classes it as proverbial wisdom of anonymous origin.
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” is an anonymous proverb, not a John Wooden original. Earliest documented instance: Rev. H. K. Williams, "The Group Plan," The Biblical World 53, no. 1 (January 1919): 81. Wooden used a variant in a 1977 speech. Via Quotle.info / Quote Investigator.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to John Wooden. Use the credit shown above instead.
Can you use it?
? We couldn’t verify where this wording comes from, so there’s no rights status to give. Safe to present as an unverified or anonymous line — just don’t assert a specific author or source.
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In context
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Provenance
The earliest documented instance
Earliest in print
“Remember, if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail.”
Work
The Biblical World, Vol. 53, No. 1 (January 1919), p. 81
Writer
Rev. H. K. Williams, in the article “The Group Plan”
Wooden’s version
“When you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail.” — Texas Tech, January 1977
Remember, if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail.
Proverb, not authorship
Transcribed by Quote Investigator ↗ from “The Group Plan,” advice to people leading presentations for church groups. Quote Investigator adds that Williams was probably repeating an adage already in circulation, and that earlier instances may yet surface.
1919 — The first known appearance: Rev. H. K. Williams writes “Remember, if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail” in The Biblical World, per Quote Investigator ↗. The scanned January 1919 issue is on the Internet Archive ↗.
1929 & 1973 — The saying spreads unattributed: South Carolina schools superintendent James H. Hope writes “If we fail to prepare we prepare to fail,” and Robert H. Schuller later prints the “plan” variant in a self-help book — chronology at Quote Investigator ↗.
1977 — John Wooden tells an audience at Texas Tech’s University Center Theatre, “When you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail” — reported in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and cited by Quote Investigator ↗. He is repeating, not coining.
Today — English Wikiquote files the polished wording in its Misattributed section for Wooden ↗, noting he “only repeated a common aphorism” already circulating in the 1920s, when he was a youth.
No rights status can be asserted for the popular wording, because no identifiable author or first publication has been established for it — Quote Investigator classifies the saying as anonymous proverbial wisdom. The separate 1919 sentence in The Biblical World was published well before 1931 and is out of copyright in the United States, but it is not the same wording.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
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Fact-check
Who gets the credit, and why they shouldn’t
This is a proverb with a celebrity problem. Because it sounds like advice a wise man would give, it has been retro-fitted onto two of the most quote-magnetic Americans alive or dead — a basketball coach who really did say a version of it, and a founding father who almost certainly never did.
✕
The popular wordingJohn Wooden Repeated, not coined
Wooden did use the idea publicly — “When you fail to prepare, you’re preparing to fail” at Texas Tech in January 1977 — and SUCCESS magazine’s TheWoodenEffect.com, produced in cooperation with the Wooden family, lists the tightened version among his motivational quotes ↗. But the saying was in print in 1919, when Wooden was eight. English Wikiquote places it in his Misattributed section ↗, noting he “only repeated a common aphorism.”
✕
The “By failing to prepare…” variantBenjamin Franklin No evidence
The most-shared form on social media puts it in Franklin’s mouth. Quote Investigator ↗ found “no substantive evidence that Benjamin Franklin employed this adage,” and Wikiquote lists three variants under Misattributed ↗: “there is no evidence that he coined any forms of this quote.” Franklin died in 1790, more than a century before the phrase surfaces.
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The “fail to plan” variantRobert H. Schuller Later variant
The televangelist printed the “plan” swap — “If You Fail to Plan, You Are Planning to Fail” — in a 1973 self-help book, which helped make that version ubiquitous. It is a reworking of the older “prepare” adage, per Quote Investigator’s chronology ↗, not an origin.
✓The honest answer: nobody owns this one. The earliest documented instance belongs to Rev. H. K. Williams in January 1919, and even he was likely repeating something already common — see Quote Investigator ↗.
Context
Why it stuck
The line survives because of its shape. It is an antimetabole — the same words come back with the key terms swapped and their endings traded (“fail to prepare” becomes “preparing to fail”). That mirror-flip is what makes a sentence feel earned rather than merely stated, and it is why the phrase outlived every person who has been credited with it.
Its journey is a good illustration of how attribution drift works. A proverb starts anonymous in a church magazine, gets repeated by a school superintendent, a televangelist, and a basketball coach, and then — needing a face — settles on whichever name in that chain is most famous. Wooden is a plausible host because the sentiment genuinely matches his teaching; Franklin is a lazier host, the default owner of any homespun-sounding maxim.
It was already in print in 1919 — when the man usually credited with it was eight years old.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Writing in 1919 · Minister and religious-education writer, The Biblical World
H. K. Williams is not the author of this proverb so much as the first person known to have committed it to print. In January 1919 he wrote a piece called “The Group Plan” for The Biblical World, a University of Chicago journal, advising people who had to lead presentations for church groups — and closed with “Remember, if you fail to prepare you are preparing to fail.” Quote Investigator, which found the passage, notes he was probably quoting an adage already in the air, so the true originator remains unknown.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented instance
H. K. Williams, “The Group Plan,” The Biblical World 53, no. 1 (January 1919): 81. Earliest documented instance identified by Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: If You Fail To Prepare You Are Preparing To Fail,” 8 July 2018.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Failing to prepare is preparing to fail’?” Last verified 22 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/failing-to-prepare-is-preparing-to-fail/