Who Moved My Cheese?

I have over 200 books on my book shelves in my study, with disparate titles ranging from “The Idiot’s Guide to Dealing With Difficult Employees” (given to me as a gag gift at a team Christmas dinner by a former colleague, I found it very amusing but my team did not then!) to “The Reason for God” (given to me by a friend who believes I need to understand the enormity of faith). Yet thru the years whenever someone asks me to name my favorite book or recommend one, I invariably revert back to “Who Moved My Cheese?” authored by Spencer Johnson, M.D., published in 1998, given to me as a Christmas gift by the head of a dept at a former employer during the Asian Financial crisis (he gave one to everyone in the dept).

This book is compact (all of 94 pages); it has decent font size; it is an easy read; and it is profoundly enlightening. It is a very simple parable about 4 little characters who ran thru a maze looking for cheese to nourish them and make them happy daily. Two were mice named “Sniff” and “Scurry”, and two were little people named “Hem” and “Haw”, they were the size of the mice except they act like humans. Everyday each would put on their jogging suits and running shoes, left their little homes and raced out into the maze looking for their favorite cheese. Then one day the cheese disappeared, much to their surprise, dismay and chagrin!! The story went on to describe and contrast the differences in how each dealt with the situation. Dr. Johnson utilized brilliantly the metaphors of “Cheese” and “Maze” to illustrate the things that we each want in life; where we look for them; how we define success and happiness and what we would do in the face of unexpected changes. The WHAT: a good job, a loving relationship, money, material possessions, health or peace of mind. The WHERE: workplace, family, community, etc. The HOW: is entirely up to you!

It is a uniquely delightful book on dealing with changes, one that I reread over and over through the years.

As it states on the inside cover of the book: “Written for all ages, the story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights can last for a life time”.