So I recently read the book "Who Moved the Cheese" by Spencer Johnson. It is a very short book, the actual story is 30 pages. The book itself is 53 pages long.

So without going into too much detail the story is about 4 characters who are in a maze. Each day they go out into the maze in an attempt to find cheese. One day the group of 4 (who work in pairs) find a Cheese Station where a large amount of cheese is located. So each day they come back to the same Cheese Station to eat the cheese and then return to their houses in the maze.

1 pair of the characters, whom are mice, take notice each day of how much cheese there is and different ways to and from the Cheese Station. While the other pair of characters, whom are people but the size of mice, just head to the Cheese Station each day and go home each night without a care in the world assuming they have a never ending supply of cheese. Well after a while the mountain of cheese that was at the Cheese Station is gone. The people were taken by surprised and confused. When the mice got to the station that morning they immediately went back into the maze to start searching for more cheese as they knew the supply at that Cheese Station was almost gone. 

The humans remained at the Cheese Station and kept coming back day after day expecting more Cheese to come and also to throw a fit that they felt there were entitled to the cheese.

After a few days the Mice came across another Cheese Station with more cheese. They kept the same regiment and took notice each day how much cheese was there and never got too comfortable.

And after a while 1 of the humans decided to go back into the maze to search for more cheese. However he was afraid of the maze as the humans were coming to the Station for so long it became there new normal and they were scared of getting lost in the maze like they used to. But that person went on and started searching in the maze. They found little pieces of cheese here and there and would write things on the wall of the maze for the other person to see. Once they found some cheese they went back to the person still at the station and tried to convince them to come with them to the new cheese and keep searching. That person refused and didn't want to change his comfort zone or his new normal. So the 1 person who was going out to the maze went back out and kept searching leaving notes on the wall for the other in hopes he would follow the notes one day.

As that person was searching in the maze he began to realize it wasn't as scary as he thought and kept wondering if the mice found another cheese station. Well much to his surprise one day he found another Cheese Station with a mountain of cheese. And the 2 mice were already there and had been for a while. 

That is a short version of the story. The point of the book is to make the reader self reflect on their own life and ask if they are willing to change. As you read the book I think you naturally see yourself as the mice, but often times I feel like we as people are the humans in the story who don't want to change. In today's world we do not like change. Change is seen as scary or unknown most of the time. And I think in part that is because of how we all were raised.

Think about it for a second. Our life is about structure. We have 3 meals a day at certain times. We go to school at a certain time. Change classes at certain time. Go home at a certain time. Have activities at certain times. Church (if you go) is at a certain time. Then we get a job and have that "9-5" work schedule where even more structure is enforced. We have people above us we report to and maybe people below us that have tasks to do by a certain time. Take all that with the fact we (as Americans at least) do not have as much saving as we should so if our car breaks down or our furnace breaks it's very stressful to cope with that. We are setting ourselves up for failure when it comes to change later in life. 

The one thing I think everyone can agree on is that Change comes for us all whether we like it or not. The weather changes every day and is not consistent. Presidents change, jobs change, our kids change as they grow. Everything changes over time, and especially technology! If we do not adapt and change with the the times we get left behind. You can cry and moan all you want but not changing is never a good thing. Sure not all change is great but we learn from our mistakes and from change and it makes us better people.

Look at these examples of companies who did not change:

BlockBuster, they did not change fast enough and our now out of business.

Kodak, they owned the market on Camera's and where are they now? They are trying to expand into other business ventures just to stay afloat

Microsoft, I know I know Microsoft is still around but there was a time where they almost weren't. Bill Gates once spoke about the internet as something Microsoft wasn't interested in and wasn't going to pay much attention to. Microsoft also got into the mobile phone game so late that they never stood a chance. 

Sears, nobody gets Sears catalogs anymore. Sears also sold it's Craftsman brand of tools to stay afloat and are now trying to limp on with a partnership with Kmart.

Toys R Us, this is a classic Brick and Mortar business that lost the race with the internet and Amazon. They are starting to come back but not like they were and only after they filed for bankruptcy. And yes I know the main reason Toys R Us failed was they substantial debt acquired not from their stores but their management, but still.

And last but not least: AOL & Yahoo. If you are old enough to remember the early days of the internet it was very different than it is now. How many AOL CD's did you have each with a trial time? They would mass mail those out to entire neighborhoods. "You've Got Mail" it was synonymous with the internet.

The point I am trying to make is that we need to expect change and be ready for it. Although we might not whatever is changing we need to embrace the fact it is happening and move forward. Not everything that changes sticks but you won't know that until after the fact and that will be too late to change.

There are so many analogies you can pull from this short book it is amazing. I highly recommend reading this book as it will only take a few minutes and could change a lot about your life.