Spencer Johnson, M.D., author of Who Moved My Cheese? and my coauthor on The One Minute Manager® and The New One Minute Manager®, died last week from pancreatic cancer.

Together, Spencer and I created the business parable movement. But more important, Spencer was my teacher and friend. He taught me that in writing books, feedback is truly the “breakfast of champions.” As an author or coauthor, you write the first draft. Then you share it with potential readers to get their feedback, rework the manuscript, share it again, rework the manuscript again, etc., until your readers are so excited they start asking  to buy a Xerox copy of the draft. That’s when you know you’ve got a winner.

Spencer impacted millions of lives. I’m going to miss him—and so will everyone else who knew him or read his books.

The San Diego Union-Tribune published a nice article about Spencer after he passed. Read it here.