Who Moved My Cheese - Dr. Richard Spencer (Category J)
Wisdom in a Nutshell from Who Moved My Cheese?
Anticipate change.
Adapt quickly.
Enjoy change.
Be ready to change quickly, again and again.
Having Cheese makes you happy.
The more important your Cheese is to you, the more you want to hold on to it.
If you do not change, you can become extinct.
Ask yourself “What would I do if I weren’t afraid?”
Smell the Cheese often so you know when it is getting old.
Movement in a new direction helps you find New Cheese.
When you move beyond your fear, you feel free.
Imagining myself enjoying New Cheese, even before I find it, leads me to it.
The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find New Cheese.
It is safer to search in the maze than remain in a cheese-less situation.
Old beliefs do not lead you to New Cheese.
When you see that you can find and enjoy New Cheese, you change course.
Noticing small changes early helps you adapt to the bigger changes that are to come.
Read the Handwriting on the Wall
These are some real-life cheese rules.
Never give your old cheese away in anticipation of finding new cheese.
Never turn down cheese offered to you, even if you already have too much.
Never turn down cheese offered to you just because you’ve never seen that kind before and have no idea what to do with it. When someone brings unfamiliar cheese to you, your response should be “I’ve done this many times.”
Don’t let anyone else know you’ve found some cheese.
Don’t share your cheese.
Cheese can go away at any time without notice, hence #5.
Cheese can go bad at any time. When this happens, disregard #5 and go ahead and share your cheese. An added benefit of this is that it will appear as if you’re finding cheese for others (Hey? isn’t this what the managers are supposed to be doing?) and you’ll be a hero.
Do not ask for tools (e.g. software, or a computer that is at least as fast as the secretary’s) that will help you bring in new cheese.
Do not expect your head cheese (i.e. manager, but we wanted to use the word cheese as much as possible) to find you cheese. You are expected to find the cheese. (Just where did you think they get their overhead?)
If you let your head cheese find you some cheese, it will be out in the desert*, or maybe even out of state (remember - out of state, out of mind. Umm, actually I just made that up).
Be careful. Just because it looks like cheese and/or smells like cheese, it may not actually be cheese. (This reminds us of the Cheech and Chong dog story. If you don’t know who Cheech and Chong are then go to an antique store and try to find one of their records Or you could look at their website)
If you run out of cheese you’ll be assigned to do self-assessments until you learn not to run out of cheese.
The self-assessments will take all of your time so you will not be able to look for new cheese.
Did you ever think that maybe they keep moving the cheese because they don’t want you to find it?
And finally,
- Never cut the cheese (oh come on, you were thinking this yourself).
Other Cheese-Related Thoughts
Always activate your screen-saver when you walk away from your computer. This will prevent others from entering your office while you’re out and discovering that you actually have cheese.
Remember, cheese spelled backwards is eseehc.