Hey, before we start discussing Kobayashi and how you can apply his lessons, make sure you have checked out the conversation with people we consider as titans.

At Tribe of Titans, we will be sharing our conversations with peoples doing exceptional work, rewriting an African narrative, challenging the status quo and doing something remarkable in their discipline.

Trust me, you don’t want to miss this one.

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Now back to Kobayashi.

As you may know, I often send memo’s to my team.

These are not memo’s that are orders, or some kind of new rule.

These are pieces that I feel would inspire, motivate, and share something I may have learnt.

This particular note was sent a few weeks ago. It was about a man named Kobayashi.

On my way to Jo'burg SA, I picked a book called “Think like a Freak” by the authors of Freakonomics.

Among the first few pages, while looking at data to find meaningful information, the authors explore the story of Kobayashi. The Japanese man who broke all records of the American Hot Dog Eating competition, by beating the existing world record of 25 hot dogs in 12 minutes to 50 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

Sounds weird already, right?

Hear the full story, you’ll love it.

Kobayashi came from the humble family of a Buddhist monk. Finding it hard to pay the rent, his wife sent him to a local eating competition to win $5000. Kobayashi had a regular build, and an average appetite.

His only advantage was that he had studied game theory and had a mind for finding optimal ways of doing things.

Winning the local competition was easy. He paid the rent and still had some money leftover.

Kobayashi got addicted to the idea of winning such competitions. Then, he discovered that Americans were obsessed with these competitions and decided he needs to go to Cony Island to win the world’s biggest hot dog eating competition.

He was so determined, that he took couple of months off to diligently understand the “hot dog”, and how to eat it in an optimised way.

Fast forward to Cony Island, where he trumped the world record–not only that, he went on to break his record by winning the championship 6 times. He used the same method, to win it for eating noodles, eating hamburgers etc.

What did Kobi discover?

What was it that could get him to not only do it once but 6 times across different competitions?

It turns out, that most competitors just gulped down hot dog after hot dog, using water to make it easier to swallow.

Instead, Kobi chose to focus on understanding how it all worked and what was the most optimal way of doing it.

Here was his system.

Kobi would break the hot dog into two pieces, take out the sausage and eat it, dip the bread in water (which had some vegetable oil in it, helping it to slip down his throat) squeeze together the buns and swallow everything.

Now remember this is a tiny man compared to his competition. All he really had was a strategy and an eye for most efficient way to eat.

You might be wondering, what this has to do with you.

It’s simple, Kobi’s system isn’t just used for winning food eating competitions.

It’s a system for winning at anything.

First, you understand the system. You need to break down each element of it, and passionately master them to gain success.

This is exactly what we intend to share with you in our dialogues.

These people we consider as titans will talk about their discipline, daily routines, their highs and low moments, what is significant in their pursuit of excellence, how their exceptional work brings change into the society and how their faith is influencing their business.

>>> Go ahead and listen to these conversation, don't forget to subscribe in other not to miss any new released episode.

Love. David

co-Creator, Tribes Capital

P.S.: Tribes Capital is an open & transparent marketplace that is democratising the financial system to earn an income from renewable energy productive use in emerging market.

P.S.S.: Commercially viable & impactful productive use businesses in sectors such as Health, Education, Agriculture and SDGs initiative projects.