Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life

Although a short book, a resourceful reader has 96 chances to slit his or her wrists by way of the vicious paper cut.

And now, for my top ten list of more appropriate book titles:

#10 "Don't Take It Personally, Thousands Of People Get Fired Everyday"

#9 "It's Never Easy Letting Valuable Employees Such As Yourself Go, Bill, I mean, Bob"

#8 "Cheer Up! Nobody Here Liked You Anyway"

#7 "Let Me Say Once Again, The Shareholders Really Appreciate This"

#6 "Hey, You Can Sleep In Now"

#5 "Think Of It This Way: You're Now In A Lower Tax Bracket"

#4 "It's Not Like You Lost Your Job...Okay, So You Lost Your Job"

#3 "Look On The Bright Side- You're Helping Someone Less Fortunate In A Third World Country"

#2 "At Least You've Still Got Your Health (Minus The Ulcer, Of Course)"

And my #1 title: "It Could Be Worse, It Could Be Me!"

One last thing, if for some reason you are the recipient of this book, don't line the bird cage with its pages (that would be redundant) and don't slit your wrists with them (you're better than that). Instead. use them for kindling or put them in a shredder and make confetti!


Who Moved My Cheese   April 2, 2000
 82 out of 104 found this review helpful

Strange question.

However, there's a good answer. Who Moved My Cheese is one of those rare little books that you can read in an hour, and change your life for the better. By Spencer Johnson (remember the One Minute Manager?), this is a charming little parable about life in a maze, and what happens to four archetypal characters when their large stash of cheese is (apparently) suddenly gone.

Some sniff around for new opportunities. Some scurry after those opportunities. Some hem and haw, rooted by fear and unable to move, and some learn to laugh at their fears and go looking for New Cheese.

Sounds corny, maybe. But like Aesop and other great Teachers, great truths can often be related in simple-sounding fables and parables.

I've had somebody "move my cheese" recently - and rather dramatically. Life has turned upside down; and believe me, that's neither fun nor confidence-building. It's scary as hell, and it hurts more than you can imagine. Life is not guaranteed - neither is a job, or income, or clients ... in fact, you might say the only guarantees life offers is that change will happen, and that life is finite.

You can adapt to change - or even embrace it - or you can resist change. Either way, your life will run it's course. Will you be happy and successful by resisting change? Or will you be happy and successful by adapting to - or even embracing - change?

This book can help your career, your business, your family life and your personal outlook. It won't stop change, or even slow it down (it may, in fact, speed it up - by making you an agent of change). But it will help you not only weather the storms, but learn how to surf the tidal waves. I've just read it, out loud, with my wife (we took turns to keep our voices going ). It took about an hour - and that was one of the best-spent hours I can imagine. I started that hour weighted down with fear - fear of change, and that great unknown that lurks just the other side of change. I ended that hour energized, eager to try new things, to reach out - and to start that by sharing this with you.

So what are you waiting for?

All the best ... (starting with this great little book)

Ned Barnett


Who recommends this glop?   April 18, 2001
 78 out of 94 found this review helpful

Basically I take exception to most of the authors' beginning assumptions. Things like `change always requires a reaction', `only fear stops us from pursuing change', and `change is always for the better.'

First of all he has his mice & people living in a maze. He asserts that they should not fear the maze and in addition, he has added a benign greater being (i.e. God or a Scientist?) who always renews the supply of cheese and intends no harm to our inhabitants. As we are led through the maze, running, we see that there is no real harm to be experienced in the maze and the only goals and experiences are limited to self gratification and survival. Amazingly, there are no consequences for running blindly towards change (I would think one might experience feelings of loss, grief, betrayal, etc.). And we are further directed to continually reevaluate our cheese and if it is moldy cast it off and go in search of new cheese.

Yes change is inevitable. Sometimes gradually and so discreetly as to not even be perceived and sometimes in a split second our lives can change so dramatically as to be virtually unrecognizable. But surely not all changes require us to `run' or to even change in an equally reactive capacity. Common sense alone tells us that sometimes it is better to hunker down and NOT MOVE AT ALL. Some changes must simply be endured. Not everything that happens in our lives is `fixable' or made better by running forward and embracing that change.

In my version of the book, I need additional characters to Hem, Haw, Sniff & Scurry. We as humans are not relegated to one of these four responses to change. The characters I would add are Patience, Fortitude, Loyalty, Trust, Faith, Charity and Perseverance. Poor Hem, he could have used some Charity and Loyalty. I can't help but wonder if he will now stalk and kill Haw who betrayed and abandoned him in pursuit of new cheese. And is Haw so selfish that he experiences no remorse over abandoning Hem?

Secondly, I don't live in a maze in a pristine world where cheese just appears and replenishes and where there are no dangers or consequences for my actions. I live in a real world that is sometimes joyous to belong to and at other times filled with very real dangers or threats. Here are these rather intellectually limited creatures living blissfully in a maze being supplied their cheese on an ongoing basis and all they have to do is run after it. Last time I looked, just running to a new locale didn't solve anything.

If you want real change, then jump the wall of the maze, buy a cow and set up your own dairy. Then feed all the creatures, teach them self-sufficiency and branch out into farming and other pursuits. Take charge of the direction of your life, run blindly through no mans' maze.

Some changes will call for a rallying of resources and action on my part. Some change that may affect me, may be only residual fallout from changes affecting another. Should I now go off half cocked and assume I must change also? Am I to live my life constantly reacting to others? Am I not permitted to just endure some changes?

As for constantly reevaluating and sniffing my cheese: What is cheese but a dairy product that has gone moldy? Mold is inherent in the nature of cheese (and all things living). Some of the best cheeses in the world in the opinions of connoisseurs and myself (blue, Roquefort, Stilton) actually have large visible veins of mold running through them and reek to high heaven. Yet they are highly prized over newer younger cheeses like Camembert or Brie. They are considered `ripe', a very desirable characteristic. I prefer the complexities of an older, moldy cheese.

If we were to continually to question the merits of what we have versus the merits of what we might have, I think we should never experience a happy or content moment in life ever again. That to me would be tragic and intolerable and require a BIG change. Life is not guaranteed to be always happy and smooth, without pitfalls and pratfalls, anger and laughter, etc. But it is guaranteed to be all those things and to be changing continually. Some change we will embrace, some we will push away, some we may flat out deny and some are to be simply endured.

The idea that, by changing ourselves and/or our behavior on a continuous basis to accommodate changes as they occur will somehow make these changes less traumatic or easier or more valid or okay, just strikes me as fallacious reasoning. Are we to be so fickle to our beliefs as to constantly be adrift on the current of change? Are we no longer to live life in the here and now savoring all the small good things that make life worthwhile? Are we now to live with all thoughts focused ahead anxiously seeking out, identifying and dealing only with anticipated changes?

Life is not made up only of the pursuit of cheese. A long or short term absence of cheese is not what defines the meaning of life and it therefore does not require immediate action. There are other pursuits: physical, academic, artistic, spiritual and emotional that are also worthwhile and sustain us at times when the cheese is less than perfect.


Just a great little read.   December 7, 1999
 77 out of 87 found this review helpful

My husband just received this book as a birthday gift and as I was cleaning up from the party the title caught my attention. I picked it up and 45 minutes later I am finding myself writing my first online review of a book. It gives such a positive outlook on the always inevitable change that everyone is bound to encounter. The lessons are ones which we all know in our hearts but so many people are not willing to implement them. I would love to recommend this book to everyone that I know but my fear is that those who could use it's wisdom the most will still keep their eyes shut to their own "special" situations. Or they will discount it as worthless advice. I think that the people who stand to gain the most from this enlightening story are those who are already open to change and have already recognized the need to venture out into the maze. This could just be the push that they need. The book helps you to let go and conquer your fear of a situation. We each have our own story and a detailed book cannot possibly give any more instructions for our own lives than this simple one does.


Simple Is Good; Simplistic is Stinky Cheese   September 30, 2000
 72 out of 85 found this review helpful

Aphoristic cliches are all well and good, but not when they cost $20. Fear not, thinking animals of the farm! This book is only a number one bestseller because of it's corporate connections--it proudly lists 72 of them (AAA through Xerox) before the title page. Reminds me of the George W. Bush campaign's $100,000 Pioneer donors being passed off as a groundswell of popular support--admit it, ninety percent of you read this book because your company made it required reading.

I'm reassured that the head of my 25-person company gave it to his staff with some idea that he would be insulting their intelligence, but that the book would spark positive discussion anyway (last year's title was Ken Blanchard's RAVING FANS). I just lament the $250 or more he must have spent on it.

What about the message of this cute little hardbacked pamphlet? Change happens, deal with it or starve, you silly mouse you. Obviously Spencer Johnson has a nice franchise going for himself. Let's just be honest about who finances it.

To use a better rodentine image, I quote Lily Tomlin: "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you are still a rat." What are we America? I wasn't insulted by this book, but it did make me wonder about the answer to that question.