Though you’ll get one at the end of the meal in any Chinese restaurant in America, it may surprise you to learn that fortune cookies are not Chinese. In fact you won’t find them in China at all. There are several legends as to how they came to be, but most agree they are an American invention from the early 1900s.

Can you believe what you read in a fortune cookie? Really just a novelty, there are some proverbs that have appeared in the cookies that you might want to consider as a leader. Some of these actual “fortunes” may have a practical place in your mind:

Change comes with embracing the future, not fighting your past.

To be found, stop hiding.

If you look back, you’ll soon be going that way.

He who throws dirt is losing ground.

No snowflake feels responsible in an avalanche.

You think it’s a secret, but they know.

Nothing is so much to be feared as fear.

Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.

Don’t let statistics do a number on you.

There is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

The world may be your oyster, but it doesn’t mean you’ll get its pearl.

Do not mistake temptation for opportunity.

A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.

Nothing is impossible to a willing heart.

It takes less time to do a thing right than it does to explain why you did it wrong.

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.

Of all our human resources, the most precious is the desire to improve.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.

People learn little from success, but much from failure.

One that would have the fruit must climb the tree.

All things are difficult before they are easy.

You don’t need strength to let go of something. What you really need is understanding.

Actions speak louder than fortune cookies.

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