'Who Moved My Cheese' Helps Businesses Adapt

Pam Washington

Entrepreneurs sometimes think, “If I just knew ‘what’ to do, I’d do it — and then I’d be successful.” What they miss is that many times, we know what to do, but we can’t seem to bring ourselves to do it, or to do it consistently. Building the personal development skills that allow you to not only recognize what is needed, but to actually do it, is much more useful. It’s like the difference between giving a man a fish and teaching him how to fish.

“Who Moved My Cheese,” by Dr. Spencer Johnson, is written as a parable, which makes it a fast and easy read. This is a good thing, because even though it’s less than 100 pages, it delivers profound truths applicable to family, professional or personal life.

Don’t let the make-believe format mislead you into missing the clear similarities we humans share with the book’s main characters: two mice named “Sniff” and “Scurry” and two “little people” called “Hem” and “Haw.” They live in a maze (aka our world) and are looking for their “cheese,” which are the things we want in life to feel happy and successful.

You can finish this book in less than an hour and one of the features I liked best about it was the primary lessons are periodically summarized as “the writing on the wall.” Best of all, the primary messages, while short, are powerful and lasting life lessons.

Johnson has written 10 best-selling books on business management and dealing with change. This book may be one of his best, as he gently leads the reader to develop the skills to effectively manage change in ways that reduce stress and increase success — however you define that.

Having owned my cleaning service business for more than 25 years, I’ve been through every type of economy and change imaginable in the residential and commercial markets — some of them multiple times. One of the things I struggled with in the first decade was my desire to get the human resources portion of my business stabilized.

For years, I thought that if I could just get the right mix of workers and managers, I’d have everything dialed in and it would be smooth sailing thereafter. Wrong! I realized the only constant is change and I began to embrace systems that allowed me to evolve with the times. I stopped recreating the wheel over and over, and finally put my business on autopilot.

Once I started coaching other cleaning business owners, I found many of them were hungry for the marketing or hiring secret sauce that I’d spent years searching for as well. Now, I realize the kind of personal growth that’s developed by embracing the lessons in this book are much more valuable than the latest marketing tactic or hiring widget. I highly recommend it to entrepreneurs or anyone interested in living their best life.

Pam Washington
Founder and CEO
A1 Janitorial Services
Las Vegas