Introduction: I Moved Your Cheese by Deepak Malhotra
In I Moved Your Cheese there are three characters – Max, Zed, and Big. Instead of reacting to the change and chasing the cheese, these three characters show us we can avoid the maze or change it to our liking.
Change happens and is often beyond our control. But how we respond to change determines whether we'll successfully navigate the change. We need to move on or adapt to the change. Here are a few questions to answer that will help us deal with the change.
- Why was the change forced on us?
- How can we have great control over our lives in the future?
- Are the goals we’re chasing the correct ones?
- How can we avoid the mazes others subject us to?
Question your assumptions about your limitations. Are they correct? You have more control over your life than you think. Many of the limits and constraints you face are self-inflicted. When you challenge your assumptions, you can change your environment.
Summary of I Moved Your Cheese by Deepak Malhotra
In I Moved Your Cheese, there's the Good Book. A bible so to speak. In this book, the mice learn that change happens. You can complain about the change. Or you can be proactive and change with the times. The choice is yours. The change may be beyond your control, but you control how you respond to the change.
Knowing a truth doesn't mean you know what to do about it. Life in the maze has changed. Because the mice read the good book, they knew that change was inevitable. They were still traumatized. Yet, they knew they had to move to new cheese depots.
The mice who studied and understood the teachings of the good book were the first to get moving in search of new cheese. Those who found it harder to break old habits took a longer time to move forward. But they knew it was a necessity to search for new cheese.
The mice learned to change and adapt to the times, so they found the cheese faster than in olden times. Discovering the truth in the good book, the mice stopped questioning why they had to move. The mice accepted what was in the good book without question.
You want cheese + The cheese is no longer here = Go elsewhere to find the cheese.
This is a simple formula the mice understood.
Max
In I Moved Your Cheese fable, Max was different. He questions everything and doesn't take what he hears as a given. Max was a rebel with a cause. We make progress when we question that status quo. The other mice accepted their lot in life.
“The more he [Max] questioned, the more he discovered how little the other mice understood. They knew a whole lot, but they understood very little.”
Max discovered the good book and read it. The book was widely read and accepted as truth. Max found it unbelievable how people accepted what they read without questions. He wondered how people could accept change without question. Was change inevitable and uncontrollable?
“Max was determined to discover who had moved the cheese. He was determined to discover why they had moved it. He was determined to discover why the maze was the way it was. And he was determined to change what he did not like about the maze. And so he set about it.”
A long time passed.
Zed
Zed didn’t like cheese, but ate it to sustain his body. He developed a reputation as being wise. Like Max, Zed didn’t enjoy navigating the maze. Neither did he enjoy following routines and customs. He was very happy. And he didn’t like the good book. The other mice loved the informal discussions they had with Zed.
During one discussion, a young mouse challenged Zed about the good book, about change being inevitable and uncontrollable. Zed agreed that change was inevitable, but that belief was irrelevant. How does that belief help you?
In the maze, the only thing the mice are interested in is finding cheese and how quickly to do so. But none had ever questioned why. During the discussion with Zed, the young mouse came to this realization that the Why was important. Some of the other mice took offense.
Big
He was the strongest mouse in the maze. Big loved to exercise and ran every day. He wasn’t concerned about diminishing cheese or someone moving the cheese because he always came across cheese as he ran around the maze. Big was a contented mouse because he was happy.
The maze was irrelevant to Big. He had lots of friends who he spent time with.
Back to Max Meeting Big
Big had heard about what Max was trying to do, so he wanted to meet him. He told Max that he could help him by throwing him upwards so he could scale the wall. Remember, Max was seeking a way to get out of the maze. The experiment worked, and Max was out of the maze.
Max discovered there was a world outside the maze. He discovered people who created the maze for pleasure and profit.
All beings have mazes. They accept the mazes and think it’s impossible to get out of the maze, so they never try. And they never question the status quo. When you refuse to accept the status quo, you decide to act. Max acted and found the answers to his questions. The answer to “who moved my cheese” is “I moved your cheese”.
Being out of the maze with human beings, Max studied them and learned how they designed the maze and why. He learned why they moved the cheese and how the decision was made. All the questions Max had as a child were answered.
Max took a stand by deciding not to be a cog-in-the-wheel. He changed the maze and provided more cheese. He wanted to create space for the mice to think and to evaluate the path they’re taking. Max wanted them to find happiness and their purpose in life.
But people have to want to change.
Zak Tells His Story to Max
Decide to change and miracles happen. Everything begins with a thought. Your thoughts direct your actions.
Question the rules, assumptions, and constraints others accept.
Max believed the mice were in the maze. But Zak countered the maze was in the mice.
How can you get out of the maze to take control of your world?
Back to Big
Big usually ran the same path. But he noticed that the mice population was growing and was affecting his run. He realized he had to do things differently. Big punched through the walls and got out of the maze. The maze had always been irrelevant to him. He left the maze for good.
Conclusion: I Moved Your Cheese by Deepak Malhotra
In a world where change is inevitable and mazes are metaphors for life's challenges, I Moved Your Cheese urges readers to question, adapt, and take control. The key takeaway is to be like Max, who dares to question, learn, and transform; like Zed, who prompts us to ponder the deeper meanings and purposes behind our actions; and like Big, who breaks free from the confines of the maze to shape his own reality.
Next Steps
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