Rating: Summary: Life changing Review: This book, The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho),Self Matters (Dr.Phil) and The Butterfly (Jay singh) were my favorite books of the year. I got many books in my stocking and I must say this was my favorite! Buy this book, you won't regret it.
Rating: Summary: If you don't mind your intelligence being insulted... Review: ...then read this book. I was forced to read this at a former job, and never in my life have I been so insulted at work than by having to read this book. It's written on a third grade level, with big print and huge margins. It insults you with it's simplistic messages of what I consider to be common sense. The "cheese" represents motivation & goals, and the book explains how to regain / hold on to your motivation if someone, or something, has moved / removed your motivation. I would hope that any capable and competent adult would be able to understand how to do this without needing to be told it by a cheap and utterly useless book. The only thing great about this book is that it makes a great joke gift for that boss you absolutely hate. I'd suggest that instead of wasting your money on this book, give it to charity, or take your boss out to lunch and thank him / her for not making you read this book.
Rating: Summary: Very interesting book! Review: This is a tremendous story that can be related to almost any struggle we experience in our lives, whether it is with a job, child rearing, relationship with a spouse, or a home repair. If you can truly see the underlying message in this story, this story will be a tremendous gift to you. I would also highly recommend "Rhythm, Relationships, and Transcendence" by Toru Sato if you like a more detailed and practical account of these types of things. It is also an amazing book.
Rating: Summary: DO NOT get this book Review: A brief summary: This book is a Hallmark card made into a book. At best, it is appropriate as a condescending gift to your employees. Do not give to your subordinates or colleages though. And friends may find it cute. Family, no. Too empty for family, empty of.....benefits and everything that makes a book worthwhile reading! When I read this book I just couldn't wait to get to the ending, waiting to see if America's judgement of making this book a best-seller was to be validated when I got to the ending. The answer: Hell no - I wish I hadn't fallen for what I now recognize as "best-seller Hype". If you plan to spend money on this topic then get "Think and Grow Rich", and teh Rich dad Poor dad series instead. However, if you are completely dumbfounded with regard to books on innovation/finance then you have a chance at benefiting from this "book" (better description "Hallmark Card"), although I stand firm that there are better books even for dummies. I just hope this piece of sh was a best seller because of condescending subordinates and not because people bought this time-waster for themselvse.
Rating: Summary: Help To MOVE ON With Life...at least for me! Review: I read this book on a strictly personal, not professional, level. (Which is to say that my mother sent it to me when I got homesick away at college!) It might be different if I were handed it in the workplace, but the bottom-line is: it really helped me. It helped me to realize that if I wasn't happy (happiness is what I saw as my "cheese") then instead of focusing on what used to be, I needed to seek happiness elsewhere. (I was definitely the hem/haw whichever one stayed at station C till the bitter end looking for the (...) cheese! It seems to me that this book is most effective with those types of people who have extreme trouble accepting/coping with change.)I guess we'd all like to think that there is a key to finding happiness and I think this book pointed out one: search. If something isn't making you happy then go find something that does; look for your cheese elsewhere. Maybe it isn't applicable to everyone. Certainly some people have a harder time accepting and adjusting to change than others, but this book really helped me through a difficult time and encouraged me to move on. Change can be scary, especially when you're young and inexperienced. It helps to see things from a simplified point of view. Things became a bit clearer for me. When you can see the big picture, it's easy to choose which way you'd like to be, and then try to apply that to the analogous aspect of your life. I would recommend this book to anyone having trouble adjusting to change, or finding a way to move on, and especially new college students. At least those who are having a rough time. For all of us past-dwellers, this book can be a real good (and needed!) kick in the rear.
Rating: Summary: Advice In A Hurry Review: Back in the days when I worked in dot-com land, Who Moved My Cheese was required reading for all management types in my company. Like other requirements of my job, including drinking too much, overeating, strip bar visits and early morning golf games, I avoided it. Hence, I reached the glass ceiling of corporate America. Now that I have much less income and far more self-respect, I decided to circle back around to reading it, checked out from the library, of course. Who Moved My Cheese is written in parable format, with big type like Reader's Digest for the vision impaired. It's also incredibly short, something you could read in an hour. I presume the format of the book, written by the same guys who brought you The One Minute Manager, is designed for those go go go executive types who think they don't have enough time to read anything. The book gets to the bottom line pronto, which is: change or be ground down by the quickly changing nature of life, especially in business. The message is sound and thought provoking, but I was left slightly unsettled by pro-boss tone of the book. It seemed to imply that anything done by your bosses to stay competitive was OK, and if you didn't agree, you were just being resistant to change, demanding that your "cheese" stay in one place. Maybe that's me reading into it based on my own experiences in a company that struggled to find a vision or maybe it's endemic to much of the business world today. It's worth pondering if you have an hour to read the book.
Rating: Summary: Don't think. React! Review: I've read a few of these reviews and wonder if I really have anything new to add... Ok, yes I do... Once upon a time, there was a woman with a relatively new-minted BA degree. She was hired to a megacorporation, and spent two miserable years there pushing vast piles of paper. She was "restructured" just a little before her second anniversary. She spent a couple of weeks in "survival" mode after the downsizing before she began to wonder what else she could do with her life. Her company's "outplacement" consisted of a two-day seminar, in which she was encouraged to "look outside of the administrative box." She had a quick, gut reaction, "I want to do international negotiation and client service for an MNC!" She was recommended, "Who Moved My Cheese?" along with her seminar attendees. Dutifully, she went out and purchased the oh-so-slim volume, and read it that evening. She thought, "My problem has been that I've been thinking-- I should be out there researching and searching. Forget this 'what do I want to do with my life' line of inquiry." No Hem and Haw for her! So she ran. She put on her jogging shoes and ran to the library to look at the top 100 biotech businesses, and prepared to do an "out of the box" networking search. She also ran to her alma mater, and spoke to one of the career counselors there, who pointed her to the California Registries of International Businesses. She duly copied all of the firms in her area, and Scurried home to sniff out a database of companies and find other "hot" industries to participate in. Scurry, Scurry, Sniff, Sniff. She typed. She looked up industry codes. She lost motivation. She stopped jogging. She was miserable. She was depressed. She looked at the names of the companies she was putting into her industry-searchable database, and Hawed about working for any of them. Hem hem. She didn't want to work for a single one! Haw and Hem, Hem and Haw. She hated corporate America. She never wanted to work in the private sector again. Where was that Sniff and Scurry? She slowed down and Hemmed more. She Hawed for a little variety. She decided her goal was to work in public policy for state or local government. Bad Hemming and Hawing! But, miraculously, she was becoming happier, and more light-spirited. "This is what I want!" she Hemmed. Scurry and Sniff were nowhere to be found, and so, Hemming and Hawing more, she started to research changing careers. The Scurry for New Cheese was put off in the quest for the Right Maze. A-maze-ing! She was no longer running in Corporate cirles or Scurrying about for petty handouts from CEOs making 400x what she was. Hem, not so bad, she Hawed. "I'm lactose intolerant, anyway," she mused. The quest for New Cheese became the quest for A Big Bagel with Lox. She smiled, as she Hemmed. A brief thought sent her Scurrying back to reread, "Who Moved My Cheese?" She Hemmed and Hawed a little more, with a big smile. The Big Bagel is on the horizon, which she can see, since she's escaped the maze... Cheese hurts!
Rating: Summary: A Parable (Actual Story) for the Buisness World Review: This is a quick read, but it is a very useful book. We are constantly faced with changes, both in our professional and social lives. We need to recognizite change, cope with it, and manage our lives around it. I have survived 2 rounds of layoffs and one merger, which helped me relate very well to this story. Most of us will relate to the "mice" in this story. Some of them remind me of my coworkers and family members. Sometimes humans have a hard time coming to grips with the obvious and they need to be "shown the way." This book is a must read for business people, although everyone will enjoy it.
Rating: Summary: Read book, took test, felt bored, not impressed Review: My public-sector organization not only had to read "Who Moved My Cheese?" recently, but had to spend a full day retreat, complete with outside consultant, to take the personality test that goes with it, and be categorized. I turn out to be a Thinker (Haw plus a little Sniff), and I "Think" this was a criminal waste of tax dollars. The book is, as almost a thousand other reviewers have pointed out, inane and juvenile in presentation, but sinister and propagandistic in intent. Its core idea--that if you get moving as soon as your livelihood (your "cheese") has been removed, you will find a bigger store of cheese just around a few corners--is a bizarre and outdated combination of 90s boom-time delirium and New Age pablum. But it's pablum with ground glass in it--it's easy-to-swallow Newspeak for "You're probably gonna get fired soon." I give this (physically and intellectually) slim volume a second star only because during the 20 minutes it took me to read it, I did get one valuable insight about a particular problem in my workplace. Otherwise, I recommend viewing this book with suspicion and misgivings, if indeed you're forced to view it at all.
Rating: Summary: Who Moved My Cheese Review: WHO MOVED MY CHEESE is a parable. Under it's thin veneer of mazes mice and cheese is the story of our quest for satisfaction in life and what tends to happen when the rug gets pulled out from under us. Humans have the unique ability to think our way into problems that are found nowhere else in the animal kingdom. When life throws us a curveball our natural reaction is to fret about the future, ponder the past and to complain and argue against what is happening to us now. Every other creature, it seems, simply moves on and does the best it can. WHO MOVED MY CHEESE makes the point that in the face of change (unexpected or not) one needs to put those feet in motion and seek out new territories. More so the authors suggest that being more aware of what is happening in your life will make change less unexpected and energize you to seek out new challenges and rewards before the old ones get stale. Awareness is the antidote to complacency. To complement the advice in WHO MOVED MY CHEESE I suggest WORKING ON YOURSELF DOESN'T WORK by Ariel and Shya Kane. WORKING ON YOURSELF DOESN'T WORK is about awareness and being present in you life moment by moment. The authors offer simple, practical and profound principles that can transform your life and make it magical. My personal work with the authors has shown me beyond a doubt that anything I have done to try and fix what I though was wrong with me simply didn't work and that simply applying awareness (a non-judgmental seeing of what is) to situations is enough to transform them.
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