Meanwhile, Hem and Haw grow frustrated and blame each other for their situation. Inspired by the mice, Haw again proposes a search for new cheese. However, Hem is comforted by his comfortable routine and rejects the idea once more. After living in denial for some time, the Littlepeople go without cheese, growing weaker from hunger with each passing day. During the next several days, Haw finds a little Cheese here and there, but nothing that lasts very long.
Haw looks back on things and realizes that the Cheese at Cheese Station C had not just disappeared overnight, as he had once believed. Instead, the amount of cheese that had been there toward the end had been getting smaller, although he had been in denial about what was coming. Haw decides he will stay more alert from now on. He expects change to happen and looks for it, and will trust his basic instincts to sense when change will occur and adapt as necessary.
After many empty cheese stations, Haw brushes aside his fears and decides to go back for Hem with the few bits of New Cheese he has found. After finding little bits of Cheese here and there, Haw leaves a trail of writings on the wall to clarify his own thinking and serve as a marked trail for Hem should he ever choose to leave Cheese Station C. One day, Hem discovers Cheese Station N, abundant with cheese, including some new varieties, and sees his old friends Sniff and Scurry.
After eating, Hem considers returning to Cheese Station C to see if he can show Haw how to get out of his predicament but realizes that he had already tried to get his friend to change. Haw suggests a search for new cheese, but Hem is dead-set in his disappointment and dismisses the proposal. View all 4 comments. Sep 23, Tony rated it did not like it Recommends it for: its author, to be read forever and ever in Hell.
It requires a unique sort of demonic skill to take the utterly obvious, lather it with sentimentality, turn it into an animal story, give it a big font and wide margins so that what really ought to be a pamphlet handed out for free on subways becomes instead a "book," and then expect businesspeople to buy it.
Which they did. God help us all. View all 5 comments. Mar 13, Amy rated it did not like it Shelves: non-fiction. However, it was recently recommended to me because I mentioned that I'm not especially enthusiastic about change.
I wish I could un-read this book. I thought it was overly simplistic and rather insulting to any intelligent person. This book contains such clever little proverbs as "He was happy when he wasn't being run by his fears" in other words, just stop being afraid, and you'll be happy.
Ok, good, I'll try that if my car breaks down on a dark deserted highway, or next time my father complains of chest pains. Sometimes you're not supposed to be happy. Sometimes you're supposed to stay alert and guarded, and be ready for action. The question I wish the author had addressed instead of coming up with platitudes in praise of change is this: What is the balance between working to improve what you have repairing vs.
Adaptation and flexibility are all well and good, but sometimes life is a little too complicated to be resolved just by embracing change. After all, as authors Kathleen and William Lundin said in one of their books "Adapting to a wild leader is like being the fox in a blood-sport hunt.
You may be quick, clever, and nimble, but you'll still be killed at the end of the game. View all 7 comments. Aug 03, Archit rated it it was amazing Shelves: ebooks. Change or get run over!
A great many people have recommended this particular one to me; I did not read. We might be the most evolved species on the planet but sometimes we do over-process. Adapting and forecasting change lurking around the corner is mark of sheer greatness. The best quote perhaps was curbing the wrong interpretations that might be drawn out : that you should try behaving in a new way in the same relationship.
Do not change the person but innovate your habits. If you love your part Change or get run over! If you love your partner, let them know about it in a million different ways that change everyday.
Novelty is what keeps things moving. The story is perfectly written and takes up one hour of your life but may just give you a knowledge of a lifetime.
I can see these terms being recited to people in the company I work or the football teams I lead. And I quote, "Keep moving whilst riding a bicycle. Else you fall down. Sniff the changes and scurry to action. And of course, Be Worldclass like the very book itself. Verdict : Spencer Johnson hits the bulls-eye in a 60 minute book.
View 2 comments. Jan 30, Ben Briggs rated it did not like it Recommends it for: nobody I like. Silly little self promoting book. First third is a bunch of people sitting around talking about this new silver-bullet omniscient business book that changed their lives. And finally the most insulting part is the last third where that group of high-potential future cult followers reassembles and discusses this epiphany of a book that they have read and they all agree to buy copies for all of their fri Silly little self promoting book.
And finally the most insulting part is the last third where that group of high-potential future cult followers reassembles and discusses this epiphany of a book that they have read and they all agree to buy copies for all of their friends and coworkers - as I recall, one guy was going to buy cases of the book for his whole dept at work.
Of course the last page is the coup de grais - an order form for more books! Oh pooh, now I have gone and done what Johnson did - gone and wasted a whole lot of words when those 5 in caps above would have sufficed nicely.
Oct 23, Manny rated it liked it Recommended to Manny by: Yirlean. Shelves: linguistics-and-philosophy. Dear Mr. Christ, I was at that meeting you held the other day up on the hill - I guess you wouldn't remember me, I was at the back of the crowd.
Anyway, I really liked it. I gotta admit, some of it kind of went over my head, but it was a great speech. I particularly liked the part with blessed are the cheesemakers, I thought that was inspired. Most people never think about cheese, but I think about it all the time. Well, like I said, some of it was hard to get, but I talked about it afterwards wit Dear Mr.
Well, like I said, some of it was hard to get, but I talked about it afterwards with my friend Brian and he explained it to me.
Then I liked it even more! Yeah, that is a very cool message about living in the moment and not overthinking things. You have something there. But then I said to myself, what is this guy missing? And the answer came to me clear as clear: cheese.
Just one single mention, and do you know, Brian couldn't even remember that bit. So, I hope you won't find this presumptuous or anything, but I wrote a longer version, playing up the cheese and making it more, you know, business-friendly. I've attached a PDF and I'd love to know what you think! I look forward to seeing you again. Your friend, Jesus View all 30 comments.
Oct 05, Otsu yee rated it really liked it Recommends it for: someone who is willing to look at themselves and decide how they feel about change.
When my boss first gave me this book to read, I was definately in place where I had no interest in even knowing what my attitude was towards change. After taking an hour to read the book, I found it to be ridiculous and that it didn't apply to me at all -- "I had always been an advocate for change, what the hell was my boss trying to tell me?
To my surprise, because I was actually looking for help with regards to moving my people forward and helping adjust to the changes that were happening around them, I found the book to be more than helpful. I recognized that for the longest time, I was pretty closed minded and was definately going to die with the cheese if I didn't start embracing change and the outcomes it brings.
I also recognized that I had a sniff, a scurry, a hem and lots of haws running around my team. With that knowledge, it helped me focus on how to manage them better which delivered better results from them and also made them happier employees. Way too cheesy I couldn't resist. While this was probably revolutionary at some point to some people It's like self-help for middle-graders.
Basically, we've got ourselves a cheesebuster story, about Mice and Men maybe Of Mice and Men was the original inspiration to compose this pamphlet?
Q: But Cheese never reappeared. The sooner you find new Cheese. And that you are rewarded with it when you go past your fear and enjoy the adventure. This is a book about how two mice named Sniff and Scurry and two miniature humans named Hem and Haw that's right are trapped in a maze that serves as a metaphor for the inherent restrictions and viccisitudes of our lives.
One day some invisible force beyond their control takes the cheese from a sector of the maze, sending our mice and little people looking for more, if, indeed there is anymore to be had. Sniff and Scurry, we are told, have the right attitude because "they keep life simple Hem and Haw, like too many humans, we are told, over-think things and fixate on their past comforts and expectations and spend too much time stewing over the unfairness of their loss of food rather than fearlessly getting out there and looking through the maze for more.
That question is never answered. Nay, it is, posits this book, a completely unimportant and irrelevant question to ask, because, fellow bitches, the system is how it is, it's gonna stay that way, you can't do a fuckin' thing to change that and it's just too goddamned bad if you don't like it, because your cheese is going to be stolen and sent to South China and that's that.
So stop bellyaching about jobs and health care. Just get yourself rich with stinking piles of cheese, or just shut up about it Another key question that is not asked is: "Who designed, built and maintains the maze and whose interests does that serve?
But, according to the book, such things are not only outside the realm of questioning, but are irrelevant. The very idea of changing or creating a more equitable system is simply beyond the pale. You won't be the master of your own cheese, suckers, so be happy with what you can get. Those who take the cheese always know better. In this version, Hem and Haw and Sniff and Scurry notice their cheese missing and, after looking for two years for no cheese dispensaries and finding themselves at the end of their weeks of insufficient government-issue unemployment-benefit cheese rations, decide to put Hem and Haw's human smarts and Sniff and Scurry's uncerebral pluck to new uses and ends.
Since cheese is the goal, or the ends, and since the ends justify the means, they decide to figure out who is taking their cheese, prevent further cheese-moving shenanigans, and keep those tasty fromage comestibles for themselves. Thinking "outside the maze", they decide that having their cheese taken away arbitrarily--especially by the one-percent who already own more cheese than the other 99 percent of cheese-eaters combined--is not the kind of change they will accept, and instead of being on the receiving end of change decide to mete out a little change of their own--for a change after all, who says that change always has to come from "above," from outside?
Why not from below, from the bottom up? Deciding not to take it anymore, the plucky mice and men donned commando gear, staked out the various points of infiltration, and with their cache of weapons including Molotov cocktails, took out the greedy cheese-hoarding scumbags.
No cheese was stolen thereafter. But who produced the future cheese? After all, there were no more job exporters I mean, "job creators. And there was cheese for all. View all 9 comments. Dec 09, Tanu rated it it was ok Shelves: philosophy , psychology , non-fiction , reviewed , self-help , business.
It was though. The author shows using a small story about how life can change suddenly and how one should adapt to those changes. The author of the story has mentioned that the cheese in the book represents anything a human strives for. It could be money, fame, reputation, happiness, success, achievements, or anything else. If you have trouble adapting to new situations and fear change you should read it. Apr 13, Diane rated it did not like it. The writing is terrible, the message is oversimplified and the font is gigantic an effort to pad the book out to 90 pages, I think.
And the intro and conclusion are just a marketing ploy to encourage managers to buy lots of copies to give to their employees. Cheese is a metaphor for what you want to have in life, for example a good job, a loving relationship, money or possessions, health or spiritual peace of mind.
The maze is where you look for what you want, perhaps the organisation you work in, or the family or community you live in. The problem is that the cheese keeps moving. In the story, the characters are faced with unexpected change in their search for the cheese. One of them eventually deals with change successfully and writes what he has learned on the maze walls for you to discover.
You'll learn how to anticipate, adapt to and enjoy change and be ready to change quickly whenever you need to. Discover the secret of the writing on the wall for yourself and enjoy less stress and more success in your work and life. Written for all ages, this story takes less than an hour to read, but its unique insights will last a lifetime.
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