In his best-selling book Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson used a relatable fable to communicate the reality of constant change in our lives and the need to respond appropriately. The tale revolves around four characters: two mice called Scurry and Sniffy and two little humans called Hem and Haw. The sustenance and contentment of these characters depends on the supply of cheese within the labyrinth in which they live. When the cheese runs out, the mice move around the maze in search of a new supply while the humans remain adamant about the situation. After a while, Haw changes his mind and goes hunting for new treasures while Hem continues in denial. These various reactions of the characters in the story to change and the effects this has on them are a powerful lesson about change and our different reactions to change in our daily lives. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The labyrinth in the story represents the reality of life, the dynamics of the environment in which the characters in the story live. It represents the environment in which the characters in the story go hunting for cheese, which represents the hunt for success and contentment in life. The environment is one of constant change, represented by the depletion of cheese at Cheese Station C and the discovery of new sources of cheese at Cheese Station N. These dynamics and changes illustrate the fact that the environments we live in are subject to powerful forces of change that requires appropriate action on our part. It is our responsibility to carefully study our environments and understand the changes that are affecting them so that we can appropriately respond to these changes for our benefit. For several years, my family owned a thrift store that sold cheap clothes. My family lived near the University of Michigan campus and as such we lived among a young student population. This population provided a ready market for our store and business was good for many years. The ready student population that provided a steady market for our business was the cheese we thought would never run out. My family got comfortable and failed to pay attention to the winds of change that were sweeping through society: the rise of online commerce fueled by the Internet. Slowly, our Internet-savvy customers began moving their purchases online. Gradually, our sales volumes and revenue started to decline. The cheese had moved and we had to move around the maze to look for new cheese. Like Haw in Johnson's tale, my family was at first in denial about how to respond to the end of our cheese. But we knew we had to adapt to the changes in our labyrinth by finding new cheeses. We did this by accepting that our business needed to change in how we interacted with our customers and how we presented our product to them. We decided to interact and sell to our customers through social media platforms that were already revolutionizing commerce. We put our business on platforms like Facebook. By targeting customers who had done business with us previously, we noticed a change in the fortunes of our business and a turnaround in sales revenue and profits. Thus, by accepting change and deciding to respond appropriately to it, my family managed to change the fate of our business in a time of great social change. A?.
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