Steve McConnell Quotes

Whatever project I sign up for, I try to familiarize myself with the material as much as possible before I start.

We must beat the iron while it is hot, but we may polish it at leisure.

The preparations were elaborate and mammoth in scale, and Washington threw himself into the effort, demanding that not an hour be lost.

[To organize a school] looks much more difficult in theory than it does in practice.

In business or in football, it takes a lot of unspectacular preparation to produce spectacular results.

There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

All things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind.

I am aware that success is more than a good idea. It is timing too.

We are very focused this time and our preparation has been better. We maybe made one or two mistakes last time, but not this time.

A knowledge of and the ability to properly and quickly execute the fundamentals. Be prepared and cover every little detail.

I don't think people understand how much hard work innovation is. That it's not just getting an idea. You really have to cross your T's and dot your I's long before you ever start on the project. I don't think people perceive that about me. I work hard.

Most leaders would agree that they’d be better off having an average strategy with superb execution than a superb strategy with poor execution. Those who execute always have the upper hand.

Any design, any city, any kind of craziness or tragedy, it all comes from a long time of preparation.

Method is the arithmetic of success.

I think it's important to know what you're going to do with the ball before it comes to you. So you're always thinking before hand and when the ball comes to you to can make the pass straight away.

A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

He who does not stretch himself according to the coverlet finds his feet uncovered.

I learned how to order my thoughts, and most important, learned how to develop a plan. I discovered the power of a plan. If you can plan it out, and it seems logical to you, you can do it. And that was the secret to success.

Success is 20% skills and 80% strategy. You might know how to read, but more importantly, what's your plan to read?

Things are achieved when they are well begun.

Before I undertake a lengthy project, I have usually given much thought to it over a period of years. My files are filled with likely subjects - which perhaps, one day, I will develop.

Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow.

It is one thing to see your road, another to cut it.

I learned in architecture that you have to have a real plan. You have to have a client, they have to have distribution, start-up money, and have a vision of where it's going to go. All this has to be settled before you start, or else your work is just a story.

Sometimes plans don't translate smoothly from paper to real life.