Fortune Cookie - Mark Given

Herbert Spencer. And Herbert had several philosophies that he lived by, but one particularly of interest I read about many years ago. And the philosophy was, the great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. So look, it's right here. Say that with me. The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. And it's actually a very true principle, because if you think about it, it's not what you learn that changes you or changes your family or changes your community or changes your world. It's what you do with what you learn that makes a difference by teaching it to others, by sharing relevant, valuable things that uplift and inspire and change people's lives. So several years ago, I was in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Fort Bragg, and I was speaking to a large group of company owners and managers, and I must have said this quote by Herbert Spencer at least 4 or 5 times in this morning session of the whole day session that I was doing. And right before lunch, I had them repeat it again. The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. And I sent them out the door for lunch, and I sat down just to rest for an hour while they were gone. It wasn't 15 minutes when one of those company owners came screaming through the door. Well, he wasn't really screaming, but He came busting through the door, down the aisle, and said, "You're not gonna believe what just happened!" And I said, "Well, yes I will. What happened?" And he said, "No, you're not gonna believe it!" I said, "Well, tell me what happened." He said, "I only live about 5 minutes away from here, and I was going to run by the house, do some things, run by the office and do a couple things before I came back. And there's a Chinese restaurant about 2 blocks from here. So I went to the Chinese restaurant to just grab a little takeout." And when I got the takeout and I paid at the counter, I grabbed off the counter from a little basket a fortune cookie. I went to the car and I thought, "Well, I'll just munch on the cookie as I drive home." And before he even pulled out of the parking lot, he opened up the fortune cookie and he pulled out the little script. And on the little script it said, The great aim of education is not knowledge, but action. So he looked me right in the eyes and he said, "How did you do that?" And I said, "What do you mean?" He said, "Come on, you went to that restaurant and you bought every fortune cookie just knowing somebody would go by there and get one." I said, "No, I didn't." He said, "Well, how did you do that?" I said, "I don't, I can't tell you, that's just the way the universe works." He said, "Well, I don't know what you're gonna say this afternoon," he said, "but whatever you say, I'm gonna write it down."