Wie heeft mijn kaas gepikt?

Well... This was awful.

Who moved my cheese was one of the books that made me lose interest the minutes I opened it. It only holds a little amount of pages, but it reads like it was 1000 pages long and every page is the same.

The story addresses a group of friends who all have dealt with changes in their life. Imagine a stock picture of a bunch of random people in a coffee shop sitting together. One of them tells a little story about two mice and two mini humans, who all search for cheese. The cheese is moved and everyone acts different. The friends reflect the story on their lives.

The way the book is written makes you feel like it was written by a writer who was fired on several sitcoms and found a way to express his sadness through telling his sad story mixed with some leftovers from the sitcoms. The whole book feels like it was written on a pamphlet you could hand out when you fire somebody; ‘Your cheese has moved, please move along mice'. It even has no shame in addressing that fact. ‘Please buy this books to give it to your employees (you might fire hehe)'; Read between the lines at Page 1.

Let me say first and foremost I am not against people seeking help for changes. I mean, I read this book because of it. But this book is not going to help you one bit. It's just Kubler Ross' change curve personified in four characters, portrayed as a children's's tale written in font-size that will give you epilepsy.

The bottom line of the book is also very depressing and not something I can personally get behind. Here are some things I can get behind. Change is all around and will always occur and monitoring and predicting change may be hard but is worth the effort. Here is the bottom-line of the book, which I don't agree; “Change will happen, find a way with it or be left behind”. Which roughly translates in “Be one of the mice”.

Especially don't take your time to be sad, or have some doubts. You don't need doubts. True business players have no doubts. They never hesitate, let alone not take action on changes. Or if you lose somebody that was very close to you. Just be the action mice. “Get over it, you silly boy!”. Just don't have doubts, changes will always turn out right in the end and life is a maze one day you'll find cheese.

Most of those statements are dated philosophies in my opinion. There isn't a cheese for everybody. Moving on isn't always the easiest and best option and shouldn't be forced. Changes aren't always positive and shouldn't be chosen for you.

You should decide the tempo. Don't let anyone haste you into the process of mourning or choosing the right path. That's for you to find out. It's better to think about it and lose some time, than to take the path you don't want to or are forced upon.

I just picture some corporate leader firing his people, sending them a mail; “Don't worry this book will cheer you up! Change is great ! “, and getting a mail back “Instructions unclear, couldn't feed starving children with book.”. Or somebody who lost his partner to cancer. “Just move on to some other Cheese, society doesn't want you slacking around”.

And that's the bottom line. Society doesn't want you slacking around. It wants you up there, working, being a good model employee and participant. Not feeling or doubting. And if you should feel some aspect of doubt or loss, here is Kubler Ross' change curve portrayed by some mice. This will make you feel better.

This was one of the worst books I've ever read, and I don't advise anyone to read it.
I'm going to leave it at this. You've read enough of my review anyway. Now, stop feeling sorry, get back to work and stop wasting time on the internet. There is cheese waiting somewhere in the running wheel the'll portray as a maze full of opportunities.