Origin of the phrase, "5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable"

We had a recent question on the Workplace which resulted in this answer:

5 Minutes Early Is On Time; On Time Is Late; Late Is Unacceptable!

Someone asked for a citation and I attempted to locate it, albeit poorly. It's not a saying I've heard of in the UK and Google came up with a few references:

• This article from 2015

• A book written by Eric Dickey, published in 2007

However from speaking to some of the US users, they believe the term has been around for longer.

Does anyone know where the phrase came from and is it mainly a US based phrase?

Solution 1:

It depends how exactly you as looking for the phrase, Dickey's book is from 2007, not 2017. It says:

"Early is on time. On time is late" She nodded "And late is unacceptable"

But nothing about "5 minutes".

And others said similar things earlier, such as Spotlight on Teaching Orchestra (2005)

The saying "Early is on time, on time is late, and late is inexcusable" holds true for musicians

The Instrumentalist (1991) says:

Early is on time; on time is late

Letterman's law of private international business (1990) says:

in Germany you often hear the old Prussian army maxim, "Five minutes early is on time."

In 1981, there was the book Noble House, which says:

"Five minutes early is on time"

But not the rest of the phrase. This quote from the book was also in the 1981 Reader's Digest version.