Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life
Oct 8, 2008
Spencer Johnson’s phenomenally successful Who Moved My Cheese? is one of the most popular motivational business books available, preaching the message of achieving success in both the workplace and the personal sphere through anticipating, adapting to and enjoying changes that occur in life.
A Parable for the Business World
Four beings live in a maze. Sniff and Scurry are mice. They are non-analytical and non-judgemental; they just want cheese and are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Hem and Haw are mouse-sized humans and have an entirely different attitude to cheese. To Hem and Haw cheese represents far more than just sustenance; it’s their source of self-image. Their lives and belief systems are built around the cheese that they have found.
The Significance of Cheese
For most people Johnson’s cheese is representative of something related to their livelihoods – their jobs, their industries or their career paths for example – but it could just as easily be interpreted more widely to include anything that people value (health, family, relationships etc). The message at the heart of Who Moved My Cheese? is that people must be alert to changes in their particular cheese and must be prepared to go in search of new sources of cheese should the old ones run out. In other words, people have to work and adapt to get something that they want whether their goal is in the business world or their personal life.
The Success of the Cheese
The idea of interpreting different reactions to cheese can seem a little silly at first but the message of Who Moved My Cheese? certainly has resonance. Since change has been a part of life on Earth from the very beginning and seems pretty much guaranteed to carry on being so, people really do need to learn how to deal with it. Any book which inspires people and gives them the confidence to move outside of their comfort zones and seek out whatever particular goal they desire is absolutely a good thing.
With Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson has achieved the rare success of creating something simple and straightforward that everyone can understand and apply to their own lives yet that contains a powerful message that could actually make a difference to people.
When Cheese Goes Bad
Who Moved My Cheese? does have its doubters. At only 94 pages it is a very slim book and the text is rather large. Johnson’s use of the parable about cheese to convey his message results in the tone of the book being highly simplistic and, as so often occurs with motivation/self-help books, sceptics may find the content rather obvious and unhelpful in ‘real world’ situations. Johnson’s writing style does seem rather childish at first but, after reading on in the book, this really does nothing to detract from the message he is trying to convey and does in fact aid in making the advice on offer as straightforward as possible for people who may only need a little encouragement during times of change.
Ultimately, Who Moved My Cheese? is a neat little book with a fundamentally good message – everyone experiences change and those who strive for success must learn to adapt and even enjoy the changes that come their way.
Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer JohnsonISBN 978-0091816971, Vermilion, 1999, £5.99, pp 94
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