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Tony D'Amelio

By: Tony D'Amelio on December 30th, 2013

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Who Moved My Cheese Meets Nike – Thinking About New Year’s Resolutions

(by Tony D'Amelio) -- Spencer Johnson, author of Who Moved My Cheese and co-author of The One Minute Manager, was in New York before Christmas. We caught up for a chat and drinks at the Carlyle Hotel in New York. Spencer’s been a good friend for many years – someone I’ve turned to when I reached an important fork in the road and needed some advice on choosing the best path. As always, the conversation was lively and far reaching.

At one point, the conversation turned to the new book he is writing and the amazing success of Who Moved My Cheese, which has now sold over 26 million copies sold in 37 languages. Its simple parable form and size – just 96 pages – belie the profound lessons it holds.

Spencer mentioned that shortly after the book became successful, someone came up to him very aggressively and said “Who Moved My Cheese is so simple – I could have written that!” Spencer let the intended insult sit a minute before responding quietly – “Perhaps you could have – but I DID!”

His simple anecdote - something Spencer is so famous for - was also timely. As we think about our hopes and dreams for 2014 - and those inevitable New Year’s resolutions – it’s important to remember that having the courage to follow through is what counts most. Nike is right – Just Do It! And in Spencer’s case – yes he wrote a deceptively simply book – but he WROTE it! And whether someone is personally a fan of his work is irrelevant – the point is his words changed the lives of many people – and that was his goal.

My wish for all of us is that we’ll come to the end of 2014 and be proud that we followed through on the promises we made to ourselves at the start of the year. Let’s go! Just Do It! Happy New Year!

About Tony D'Amelio

Tony has spent his career putting talented people and audiences together, first in the music business and later representing the world's leading speakers. After concluding 27 years as Executive Vice President of the Washington Speakers Bureau, Tony launched D'Amelio Network, a boutique firm that manages the speaking activities of a select group of experts on business, management, politics and current events. Clients include: Mike Abrashoff, Vernice "FlyGirl" Armour, Mariana Atencio, Chris Barton, Geoff Colvin, Daryl Davis, Suneel Gupta, Ron Insana, Katty Kay, Polly LaBarre, Nicole Malachowski, Ken Schmidt, Bill Walton, and Bob Woodward.

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