Belief Two: Build a better mousetrap...

“Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door.”- Ralph Waldo Emerson

The idea of a better mousetrap or a better anything appeals to most of us. Who doesn’t want something better than they already have? It is human nature to improve and make better. It’s in our D.N.A. Thus it follows, the path to success is to offer something better to our clients and customers. It is something that makes their lives better, something of value and something authentic.
With Ralph Waldo Emerson as my partner I am reminded that the “process” of improvement is as important as the improvement itself. In other words the “how” is as important as the “what”. Knowing this leaves very clear directions, in order to build a better mousetrap the builder must improve first and be a better “builder”. Thus if things are gong to improve it must start with me. I have to be a better mousetrap builder if there is ever to be a better mousetrap. A concept we seem to have lost as a culture at times, look at some of our leading industries.
Emerson states this idea with these words. “A man contains all that is needful to his government within himself. He is made a law unto himself. All real good or evil that can befall him must come from himself. I must believe in the possibility of improvement before I find it in my life. Not always easy in a world of naysayers and smallness. There is tremendous power to be found in this belief. It is the model of any of the great achievers of our time. Models include, Bill Gates, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Jonas Sauk, Albert Einstein etc., etc. etc.
This tremendous power is found in moving from a victim to a creator. RWE calls it the government within ourselves. Not being subject to life like a ball being bounce around but rather taking the cards we are dealt and playing a winning hand.
At Christmas time my mother use to make butter cookies. She would put the soft dough in a cookie press and push the dough through a funnel shaped end. Screwed on the end was a particular shape. The shapes were Christmas trees, reindeer, stars, and other symbols of the season. I think of that press often and remember if I want a different shaped cookie I have to change the insert at the end of the cookie press. This is a simple idea but a powerful one. If you don’t like the shape of something it’s up to us to change the insert.
I love the quote from RWE “Life is a river whose source is unseen”. Life keeps coming while we are alive. No situation is forever, no person, place or thing can keep us in a hold position forever. Life like a river keeps flowing. Even if we are dammed up in any situation the force of life breaks through without exception. Life is like the dough in the cookie press or water in the river it does not resist and will go into the shape of the container. We are the containers.
RWE puts it this way. “Life is a river whose source is unseen. Life keeps coming to us. Sometimes we stop looking because we don’t like the shape of it. Change the end of the insert, you attitude, because the dough is the dough, life is life. Shape it the way you want. This belief will enhance you life beyond your dreams.
A teacher of mine once said “Life does not happen to do you it happens through you and is for you.” Very strong words. Once fully understood and accepted this belief fuels the force behind any improvement in our lives.
What often looks like a negative situation in our lives can be the crack that lets the light in. As RWE says, “There is a crack in everything God made.” I live this thought because it teaches us life is not perfect. If we seek perfection on the outside we will live a frustrated, unhappy life. How often has it happened what seems as an unhappy event or loss grows us into whole, strong, compassionate, willing humans that live fully?
I once heard that Persian rug weavers intentionally make a small mistake in the hand weaving of their rugs, that is only visible to the trained eye, to remind themselves that only God or the Universe is perfect not us.
In my mid 30’s I was living in the Midwest. My world as I knew it was crumbling. The economy was deteriorating. I had financial and legal problems. I was forced to seek another job and an offer came from Atlanta, Georgia. I never thought I would live or work there. It was one the best things that ever happened to me. Had I not been under such pressure I would never had accepted it. It was a knot in my carpet that added to the rich texture of my life.
We cannot improve anything in our lives until we improve ourselves. The world will beat a path our door when we are better “mousetrap builders” The best way to improve our mousetrap building skills is to integrate the belief that life does not happen to us but through us and is for us. This belief signals all of the life about our ability to build a better mousetrap.
“Every wall is a door” is one of my favorite Emerson quotes as it summarizes this chapter on belief. Life will treat you how you believe it will treat you. It can’t happen any other way. When the “knots” in your rug show up as problems, money shortage, job loss, divorce, sickness or injury see a door and one will appear. It can’t work any other way.





Once I believed, “I have what it takes” and I can make it better” doors began to open. The next step was to walk through the door to create a new experience of building better mousetraps or in my case, building better business and personal relationships, resulting in building a better consciousness for myself resulting in a better life. This building process involves our “internal mousetrap” which we all have.
We have all been in a room full of people and then someone in particular enters the room and the atmosphere changes. It can change either for better or worse. If it is for better then the room relaxes and people smile more and anticipate a better experience. If it is for worse then shoulders tighten, volume in the room drops, and anxiety increases. What is it this person brings into a room? It is invisible but powerful. It is their consciousness. It is who they really are. It is their internal mousetrap. As Emerson has stated what we are “thunders”. It can’t be hidden, even under the most carefully designed social veneer.
Not too long ago I took a class in NYC with the Dali Lama. When he came in the room I became emotional. I felt his presence very strongly even though I didn’t have any personal contact or history with him. I felt this presence even though I was in the last row of a big theater and did not have a deep knowledge or what he taught or stood for. His presence filled the room. With his entrance into the room, a simple classroom becomes a cathedral or a sacred place.
We all have a consciousness. It is our inner mousetrap. It is up to us to build a better one as we go through life. It is a step by step, feeling by feeling or a thought by thought process. You are building your mousetrap right now as you read this page. We have what it takes to make it better. The process of improving what we have is all of our personal responsibility resulting in the fulfillment of our destiny or avoiding it. The choice is ours.
For many years I thought it was my personal responsibility to save the world. I realize now by building a better mousetrap with each thought and action everyday is making my mousetrap or consciousness either better or worse. We can light up the world one room at a time. I can’t save the world but I can make my world a better place. I have the same amount of life as the Dali Lama has. I have the same amount of life as the Budda had. I have the same amount of life as Jesus had it’s how it’s used that makes the difference.It is up to me to use my thinking, feeling nature in a directions that results in having this better mousetrap. The best way to solve the problems of the world is not to be one of them.
The great thinkers, teachers and inventors, knew how to effectively use this law.
Some teachers call this mousetrap idea the law of attraction. We attract into our lives what we think about all day long. Our feelings are very powerful, our thinking leads us to feel a certain way. In one of Emerson quotes he say “We become” what we think about all day long. This is a very powerful idea which most people resist. It is easier to blame or be a victim than to stake our claim in life. Real power is ours to use when we recognize we have it. I do not say real force but real power. Force is an outside concept but power is an internal idea.
In sales I use this idea all the time. If I build a consciousness of service I will always have customers as the world seeks better service in all areas. If I try to force myself on others as a loud pushy salesperson I will frustrate myself and them. I often have to get myself back on track to remember it is the consciousness of better service I want to offer. It is a consciousness of appreciation I want to offer. It is a consciousness of customer care I want to build. The rest happens as we set the cause of better business in motion.
One of the things I noticed in my sales career is that the minute I started to think about how much I was going to make on a particular deal, the transaction started to get difficult. I would quickly get back on track and remember I was there for service, to assist and to build a relationship. This focus goes to work immediately to remedy the situation.
I love the idea of people beating their way to our doors when we build this better mousetrap. Emerson goes on to say that what we “are” speaks so loudly that others can’t hear what you are saying. I am in sales and this struck a real chord with me. It was important to offer a good and fairly priced product but it was up to me to build this better mousetrap with ongoing thoughts and feelings of life working for me by working through me. To make sure my behavior matches my philosophy. I had to remove the victim idea out of my thinking that life happens “to” me and not through me. This idea, is one of the most limiting ideas we can have. To view life as a victim is to deny we have any power in our lives. It is saying,”what’s the use?” I have no power to build anything better. I am stuck with this mousetrap because I’m Irish or Black or Gay or Catholic or any other limiting definition. Re-define yourself and you re-shape your life. Or as Gandi says it, “we must become the change we want to see”. To become the better mousetrap is to insure catching the things we want in life.
I moved to Atlanta many years ago. At times, it was difficult to make sales calls in this culture. I felt as though I was a Yankee trying to get people to accept me. I was having a hard time and sales were slow. I was sitting on the floor of my aerobic class and thinking about home and feeling bad and feeling sorry for myself. In that moment I decided to try something different. I told myself from that moment on I would stop criticizing southern people and start finding good things and tuck that away in my mind. I looked around the room and sure enough my first opportunity showed up. There was a very pretty young lady over dressed for this aerobic class. She had a color co-ordinated outfit that fit perfectly. Not one hair on her head was out of place. Her make-up was perfect. She even had a single strand of pearls on. She looked like she was going to the opera not a sweaty workout. My first though jumped to how stupid and southern of her to look that way. I then thought do I want to keep my status as an outsider or be part of this wonderful, exciting, growing part of the world. I had to build a better mousetrap. I then started to re-think how she looked. I decided it was great to look at someone so well groomed and I would see someone well dressed in class even if the rest of us looked like slobs. This small mousetrap repair would lead to a business overhaul. It is deliberately using the law of attraction. It really changed my experience doing business in Atlanta. And by the way, she and I became friends in class and I really enjoyed knowing her.
We tend to emphasize the negative things in life more than the good things. I use a quote from the writings of Ernest Homes that what we are seeking is seeking us. So what am I seeking? It is reasonably safe to say that we think about what we are seeking. We like to think that our consciousness will certainly know that we do not want negativity in our lives. This isn’t true. Our consciousness is the receiver not the decider. It is like a radio tower sending out messages to the Universe. Again, life happens through us and goes out to operate for us. It is up to us to give our ongoing thinking, feeling nature the best we can come up with in any situation. To send out messages that we are building a better mousetrap and we need the raw material to do so. The raw material of opportunities, of being in the right place at the right time, of meeting the right people under the right circumstances this is building a better mousetrap with the right raw material. This is the law of attraction in action.
In building a better mousetrap the real power lies in the decision of where we put our attention. Where do we focus this laser power we have? In business I keep away from too much knowledge of my competitors. I focus on what I can do not on trying to beat their deal or show I am better. I just state my case. I know who I am. If I believe I will do my best and that I am honest my internal mousetrap will catch what I am after. I really need to focus on my mousetrap. The world beats a path to the door of the one who KNOWS IN THEIR HEART, he or she is honest and will do their best. That is building a better mousetrap.
The beauty of this knowledge lies in the fact that as we keep to this truth we build a better life. This better life may even involve leaving what we are presently doing and move on to something better for us. I was told if you want to get out of something then really get into it. At first it didn’t make sense but now it does.
The beauty of this belief is we are no longer dependant on any particular, person, place or thing for our good. When I am going after business and I don’t get it, I have a choice either to be a victim and say “why me?” or what is the good in this situation that I am not seeing? If I made an obvious mistake, I learn from it and move on. The human tendency is to hang on to that experience and feel bad and dwell on it thus putting rejection and loss into our mousetrap consciousness thus “catching” more of the same experiences.
It is very simple? It is not very easy? Simply put, when Mother Teresa was asked why she didn’t attend an anti-war rally and she answered, she would only go to a peace rally as she was against nothing and was for peace. Do we know what we’re against better than we know what we are for.
The beauty of this is I have the power to create my own economy. I build a better mousetrap with the belief that each positive action I take with the intention of good service will result in good for me. I do not look to any particular person, place or thing for that good. I know I will attract into my life that which I know is true for me. Of course there are ups and downs in any business. The idea is not to live in the valleys or the peaks but to live in your beliefs of knowing your personal economy is always at work for you as long as you are working it with building that better mousetrap.
One of the things that originally confused me in the writings of Emerson was him insisting we pay our debts. That Idea seemed so basic and a little preachy to me. Pay your debts. I think I now understand the idea. I think he is talking about giving back to the world what we have been given. In other words we all have something to offer. Even if it is something as simple as smiling at someone on an elevator.
We all have a unique gift. Our work situation offers us the opportunity to give that gift. If we look at our work situation in that light it becomes much easier to get through the day. For years I felt I had to do a particular thing or my gifts were not being used. The truth is no matter what situation we are in we have the opportunity to express those gifts, even if it is in a small way. The idea is to give the gifts not matter what the circumstances and we are thus creating a path to have these gifts recognized and used in a larger way. The perfectionist in all of us insist that if it’s not perfect we can’t do it.
In writing this booklet my ego insists I write a New York Seller’s list best seller or don’t do it. The truth is if I want to build a better mousetrap for myself I have to give what I’ve got at this time. Working in a full time sales position and leading a demanding life requires much time. I give this writing what I’ve got when I can give it. It’s a rather free feeling to know I am giving my gift or sharing the Emerson Truths and it doesn’t have to be a big deal. It’s just a gift. It’s what I am attracted to and enjoy knowing and sharing. It’s the same for all of us. The world will beat a path to our doors as we work on what we can offer at a given time without the perfection. Just keep giving what you’ve got. Do the best you can do in each situation in each situation is the Emerson Philosophy.
The quote say build a “better” mousetrap not the best one in the world and beat all other mousetraps. We are enough just as we are.