Welcome back to the show everybody, welcome to the SuperDataScience podcast. Super excited to have you on board on this episode, and we’ve been in 2018 for some time now. Well, by the time this episode goes live, we’ve definitely been in 2018 for at least over a week. And what you might notice is that things might have changed. Things in your life, in your work, in your personal life, in your friendships, maybe your hobbies, maybe things around you, have changed. Maybe it’s been because of your own doing, because you decided to change things and to do things in a different way, maybe you’ve set yourself some new year resolutions, and you’re trying to follow through with them. Or maybe it’s because of other people around you. Maybe other people have decided to do things differently this year. Or maybe it could be because of certain circumstances. It’s a new year, it’s not just for people, it’s also for governments and different clubs and different societies that you might be part of, things might be changing around. And that’s normal. It happens all the time, but especially if you can point out one time of the year when change is very evident, it’s usually at the start of the year, because people want to start fresh, people want to do things differently.
And with things changing, it can be sometimes hard to keep up, or sometimes hard to shift your way of thinking. Things are changing around you, and at the same time, your mindset is definitely used to the way things were, it might not be ready to change. It might not be ready to get updated with how things are going to be now. That can cause some stress and anxiety, or uncertainty, and worry. And I want to share today a book which is designed to help go through change, is designed to help get over things that are changing and have fun and enjoy life in the new way that it’s going to be.
And the first time I found out about this book was in the mail. It was really funny. I think it was – it was actually January 2013. That’s when I found it. It was either 2013 or 2014, I’m not sure when exactly, but I think it was January 2013, and what happened was I was working at Deloitte, and they had some restructure of their internal processes and departments and so on, like a major restructure. In fact, because of that restructure, a lot of people actually left the company at the time. But the CEO of Deloitte Australia, back then it was Giam Swiegers, and he’s a very wise man. And he anticipated that this change that the company is undergoing, it might not be absolutely comfortable for everybody, and people might freak out, or might be upset about it, or might not know how to cope with it.
And so what he did is he went to a book store, or to some warehouse, and he purchased this book that I’m going to mention, he purchased 6000 copies, one for every single person that was working at Deloitte at the time. I think he got them half price, I think he mentioned that somewhere. But still, he bought all these books and he had a copy of the book mailed to every single person who worked at Deloitte. How big of a gesture is that? How big of a statement is that from a CEO, saying that hey, there are changes, we understand that they are going to be big, but we also want to look after you, we want to make sure that you’re comfortable with everything that’s going on, or you’ll be able to adapt to everything that’s happening, the way things are going to be done now, the new way of things, we don’t want you to be left behind, here is a book that will help you through it.
And that was really cool. That was very touching, and I read that book pretty much right away, or within a week or so. And the beauty of the book – the book, I won’t torture you any more, the book is called “Who Moved My Cheese?”, and it’s by Spencer Johnson, it was written in 1998 but still extremely relevant. Here is a quote from Wikipedia, it was a New York Times bestseller as soon as it was released, it remained on the list for almost 5 years, spent over 200 weeks on the Publisher’s Weekly Hardcover Non-Fiction List (200 weeks, that’s four years) and it has sold more than 26 million copies worldwide in 37 languages. And it remains one of the best selling books probably of all time.
And so the best part of this book, which I really like, is that it’s only – wait for it – 32 pages long. You can read it in one evening. That’s such a great advantage of this book, and yet the metaphors in this book are so powerful, they really help through change. Whether it’s professional or personal, this book can help guide you through it. In fact, just preparing for this podcast, I thought about it myself. Ok, interesting, what does the book talk about? And I remembered vaguely, but because it’s been a while, I haven’t reread it, so I actually just ordered it for myself on Amazon again – well, for the first time, because I got it as a present back then. So I just ordered it on Amazon, and I will reread it. Again, it’s just one evening to reread it, like a couple of hours, and I think that I could really benefit from it. Things are changing in my life, and things change normally a lot, but I feel that since I read it last time, I’ve grown quite a lot, grown up quite a lot, and a fresh look at how to deal with change will be very beneficial.
So there we go, that’s who moved my cheese. If you’re going through any sort of change, personal or professional, I highly recommend this book. Check it out. And let me know what you think. And I look forward to seeing you next time. Until then, happy analyzing.
