I Moved Your Cheese Read Online Free PDF Page B

mouse sitting before him, who had managed to climb out of the maze and take control of his world. He had learned something from Max—something hehad never cared to know before. But, knowing it now, he was amused … It had been Max, working away in the logbook outside the maze, who had placed that fresh piece of cheese he found next to his bed each morning.
    After some time, the two mice parted. They would meet again as friends.
    Each would continue to follow his own path. But each would be helped along in his journey—strengthened by the knowledge of the other … knowing that somewhere in the maze—or beyond—there was a mouse like no other.

SOME MICE ARE BIG
    It was a day like any other for Big. He woke up, stretched, and then began his morning run. He ran through the maze—fast—following his usual path. He normally ran for an hour, and then shifted his attention to strength training.
    Big had used a single criterion when he first decided to chart out the path he would follow during his morning runs. Big wanted to sprint at maximum speed through the maze and did not want the hassle of having to dodge crowds of other mice. His path consisted of the least crowded passages in the maze.
    But on this day, Big noticed that something had changed. The passages he was running through—the ones he had always runthrough—were crowded. After he finished his run, he reflected on this. He realized that the population of mice in the maze had been increasing, slowly, for quite some time. He had noticed this earlier, in some parts of the maze, but never thought much about the trend until today. Today, it had affected his run.
    Something had to be done about it. Big spent the afternoon walking through the maze, exploring it fully. He paid special attention to the more remote passages. After he felt that he had seen enough, he considered his options.
    The path he had followed in the past was still one of the best. Some improvements could be made, of course, and it seemed like a good idea to make them. Big worked on the problem for an hour, until he was satisfied thathe had mapped out the best path for his run. He looked at the map. It was good. But it wasn’t great.
    The path he charted out could work—for a while. But soon even the more remote passages would become crowded—not tremendously crowded, but enough to slow him down. That was unacceptable.
    He reflected on the situation. He found himself considering, for the first time in his life, the maze. He had never before given it any thought. It had been irrelevant to him. But now its design, its very existence, was standing in the way of his pursuit. He could not accept that.
    The maze was big. But it was not big enough.
    The maze was a way of life. But it was not his way of life.
    The maze was all he had ever known. But it was not all he could imagine.
    The decision was made.
    It was late in the evening. Big walked toward one of the edges of the maze. When he reached the wall, he touched it gently. He took a step back. Then he thrust forward with all his might … and punched straight through the wall.
    Big stepped through the hole he had created and walked out of the maze. He would never return to it. The maze was, once again, irrelevant.
    Some pursuits are simply too important.
    Some lives are not so easily contained.
    Some mice are big.
    T HE BEGINNING

DISCUSSION
QUESTIONS

    I hope you enjoyed the story and that it inspires you to reconsider some of the things that are often taken for granted in your environment. Some of you may look forward to sharing thoughts and reactions with friends or members of your book club. Others may see the book as a tool for structuring discussion and analysis with members of an organization. This section of the book is designed to help foster continued reflection and discussion.
    I believe that each reader will naturally extract from a book what is most important to him- or herself. The questions