Who Moved My Cheese ???

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing way to deal with Change In your work and In your life.

A motivational book by Spencer Johnson Co-author of The One Minute Manager -, written in the form of a business fable – sold more than 26 million copies worldwide in 37 languages and still remains to be the best selling business books. The book clocks in at 96 pages, and you can read it cover to cover in 40 minutes if you are not a speed reader. The book speaks about the vital importance of dealing with unexpected change in life.

 

A group of friends meet for dinner and the topic of discussion gets on to CHANGE. The story involved four fictional characters. Sniff and Scurry , the mice and Hem and Haw , the little people.

Sniff who sniffs out change easily.

Scurry who hurries into action.

Hem who fears change as he feels it will lead to something worse

Haw who snaps out of his comfort zone and adapts to change when he feels its for his better.

 

CHEESE is What you want in life. May be a hike in in your CTC, a tender relationship, peace of mind, a vacation, hell a lot of money. MAZE is where you can find what you want. May it be your workplace, your loved ones, your family above all in YOU.

In the story, all is well as they have found an enormous source of their yummy food. Hem and Haw even shifted their houses near it. But they fail to notice as time passes by, the cheese supply had been getting smaller every day. One morning they arrived at the Cheese station and discovered there was no cheese.This is where the story splits into two. Sniff and scurry quickly accept the loss and go off into the maze in search for other sources. Whereas Hem and Haw keep cribbing and grumbling of the present situation because cheese was very important to them and trying to decide what to do.

This business fable captures very beautifully that moment after we have lost a job or relationship, we believe that’s the end of the world. No ray of hope ahead. The author enlightens us , instead of seeing change as the end of everything, we must learn to see it as the beginning. He quotes: “If you don’t change, you can become extinct”

Good points

1)      Mildly entertaining

2)      Easy read

Bad points

1)      71 pages in extra huge font, lot of white space. 10 page story made to 71 page bookby over formatting is dishonest I believe

2)      Lengthy introduction just to fill up pages

3)      Who moved my cheese says Accept whatever that gets thrown to you. You always have the right to say “ Give me back my Goddamn cheese”

4)      For big people with big minds who wants to make big decisions, Why get stuck up in the maze? LEAVE THE MAZE FELLAS. The book doesn’t even get close to discuss this point.

Let me list down certain phrases picked out directly from the book.

1)      Change happens. ( sometimes you expect it and sometimes you don’t)

2)      Anticipate change ( it helps you to deal with it quicker)

3)      Adapt to change quickly ( the sooner, the better)

4)      Enjoy change (be flexible and go with the flow mates)

The core essence of the book can be summarized from the “Cheese station N Handwriting on the Wall”