Build a better mousetrap

A slightly different mousetrap.
(Photo: Rudy and Peter Skitterians/Pixabay | Text: David/ArtisanEnglish.jp)

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Idiom: Build a better mousetrap

It sucks, I know, but most of us do not come from money, nor does money grow on trees for us.

If, then, we would like to have a more comfortable life, with perhaps fewer money worries and possibly, dare I say it, a rainy day fund in the bank, we may try to build a better mousetrap.


When people talk about building a better mousetrap, they are talking about creating or inventing the next great big product or idea.


At first, it may sound like crazy talk, and easier said than done.

Don’t, however, be so hasty.

Many of the things we use every day came out of someone’s desire to build a better mousetrap.

Look at KFC. Colonel Sanders built a tremendously successful worldwide business selling fried chicken.

Heck, what’s so great about that?

In cultures all over the world, people cook chicken every day.

Yes, that’s true, but he did it better; he built a better mousetrap.

Look at Amazon, Tesla or, Salesforce, or any of those huge companies.

They all began with one person’s initial idea of either a new product or a way of improving on something that already existed.

None of those people are worried about their mortgages or car payments now.

In Victorian England, it was the British who built better mousetraps.

For decades, it was good old American ingenuity and know-how that gave the world better mousetraps almost daily.

Everything from air conditioners to Hawaiian pizza (sorry, Hawaiian pizza is Canadian) improved the status quo.

If you are not happy with where your life is right now, do something about it or at least try to – build a better mousetrap.


Flesch-Kincaid Readability Test

This post is understandable by someone with at least an 8th-grade education (age 13 – 14).

On the Flesch-Kincaid reading-ease test, this post scores 65.

The higher the score on a scale of 0 – 100, the easier the passage is to read.