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217 of 248 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very Inappropriate and Pointless, August 27, 2003
I found this book to be yet another one of those books churned out by the machines of middle management, and handed down to the employee. Most of these books BECOME best sellers because they are sold in bulk to corporations for pennies on the dollar. Notice how this book has "companion" pieces of merchandise, like games, a web site, and training seminars? They are selling a complete product line to ineffective management, and look at the book as more of a large business card/advertisement. This becomes evident when you read the stories and parables that surprise me that it took two authors to write only 96 pages. The writing is haphazard, poorly edited, unhelpful, sends mixed signals, and boils down to a rather insensitive "Things change, get used to it, change or you will die. Now keep moving." I would never give this to an employee, because that would be like giving an employee a stick of deodorant and wondering why they've stopped talking to you. This book does not care about the reader, and if I got it, I'd think, "Is my boss telling me to move on?" Comparing people to mice, and life's goals to cheese is patronizing to anyone with a sense of self-awareness. The motivational parables are generic, and seem out of place to the rest of the scare tactic this book is. There are better motivational books out there that are written by experienced people who have good ideas that are helpful, not doom-obsessed. This book is more of a poke in the back with a sharp stick than a carrot on the end of s string, or a light at the end of the tunnel. In fact, this book might as well say, "You better not go to the light at the end of the tunnel, it could go away at any moment, and then where will you be?" Like another reviewer here said, "[the book] offers no answer other than you've got to go out and find more 'cheese" for yourself.'" Anyone who has reached the age of adulthood, and doesn't realize that change is inevitable will certainly never get the message from this book. And those that do know will only think this book is redundant and almost encouraging bitterness. I don't know what the point of this book really is, except as some sort of gloomy pap. This book is already mostly used up, and will never be remembered like Zig Ziglar or Thomas Harris. Scout around, and find some older books, by successful people (like people who have actually succeeded in life that you have heard of), that have been around for a while. People still buy them for a reason.
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41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
A piece of cheese, January 21, 2004
Contrary to what many negative reviews said about it, this book does not compare us to mice, but to dwarfs; after all, the hero of the parable is Haw, a dwarf that learned to "adapt and enjoy the change". Hem and Haw are two dwarfs looking for cheese in a maze, and eventually they find a place that seems to replenish itself with cheese from one day to the next. Haw starts agreeing with his pal Hem, who is confortable where he is, and both do not understand when the cheese disappears and get frustrated and a little confused. Then Haw asks himself how could he be any worse if he just went looking for another piece of cheese through the labyrinth again. Little by little he starts convincing himself that to invite change, to not be afraid of change, to visualize your goal (the new chunk of cheese), and to be fueled not by fear but by hope of achieving what you want is the best thing one can do. Hem stays behind, moaning and moping, complaining of the unfairness of the situation, that he deserved the cheese, that he won't like any new brand of cheese that Haw may find - that is, if he finds it at all. Of course Haw finds a new place with not one, but many types of cheese, but by now he has learned not to trust permanence, and actually enjoy change. He even tries to convince Hem to give up the expectation that the old cheese will reappear, and to come along with him to this new section of the maze that has all this cheese, but alas, Hem does not change, and stays where he is. What the book does not state, in any part of it, is that changes may be a bad thing. Any normal human being knows that. Sometimes even when we adapt, and try our best to accept that things change, we still get failures. And sometimes things should not be adapted, because that will make the situation worse than it is. Sometimes is best to stay put, sometimes is best to see that things are changing, and adapt intelligently. Should that be obvious? Apparently there is a whole book about change that states from beginning to end that change is a good thing, period, and that book sells I don't know how many millions. I dont know why I'm writing this review, since there's already 1131 reviews posted, and I doubt if this is going to be of further help. Also I've never written any reviews, but this book was so bad that I felt impelled to say something. If you've read so far it means you know how to read a text longer than two sentences. It should permit you to skim this 92 pages of poorly written prose, few-words-per-sentence sentences, all-around easy to read and easy to understand piece of s... without much trouble, but then again, if you want to avoid the trouble, read paragraph two for a synopsis and go browsing for better books.
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340 of 399 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Lemmings, hurtling over the cliff's edge, August 30, 2000
This is the WORST business book I have ever read. The intent behind it is valid, but the content can be summed up in a few statements: Change will happen If you don't change, you will die (figuratively or literally) Watch for signs of change, so you can be prepared to change, too Change is good, and can lead to something better There. Do you feel like paying me [good money] for that priceless knowledge? This is a parable, which means they dressed up the real content by writing a goofy story about mice and little people, taking up more pages so they could justify the cost. Unfortunately, they could only drag the story out so far (how many times can you read, "and he kept walking and looking for more cheese"). The book was still only about 20 pages long, too short for a hardcover, so they added a second story to frame the parable itself. The second story is about a group at a reunion that talks about the book. Even THAT doesn't add enough pages to justify printing it in hardcover, so they increased the print size to roughly what you see in books for 3 year olds. The author, publisher and whoever else was involved in this moneymaking scheme obviously recognized that many people would see through their efforts. Their solution? Put in a statement saying, in effect, "If you think this book isn't worthwhile, then you aren't a talented, cutting edge business person like all the other who read the book are." Believe me, someone in your office (probably your boss) is waving this book around, exclaiming how wonderful it is and telling you to read it. ASK IF YOU CAN BORROW HIS COPY. Do not spend money on it yourself. You're going to have to read it, unfortunately, because the herd has spoken and you can't stray from the herd. I'll bet the person who started the rumor that this was a good book is getting royalties. It's the only explanation. The one saving grace about this book is it's a quick read. I finished it in 23 minutes. At least you can soon move on to something more worthwhile.
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