When we're young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here's your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph. Yes, hello there. Good morning to you. Good morning to you and welcome to an episode of a Join Up Dots called "Think like a freak?" Yes. Is it a good thing to think like a freak. Think in ways that other people don't? Or should we be following the herd? Well, Join Up Dots. I've learned many things. Oh, yes, I have. And through the process of doing my podcast, I found that more often than not other podcasters are making it too hard for themselves because they're just following suit from what other people do. And I love the fact of thinking outside the box and trying to do things differently, to get different results. Because honestly, if you go for what everybody else tells you, then, you're going to get what everybody else gets. And that's not what you want. If you look at all the Uber successful people out there, all the inventors, all the explorers, all the creative folk, they've all done things differently. And more often than not at the beginning, they would have been told you can't do it like that. You can't do it like it that. Well, in today's episode, I'm going to teach you how to think like a freak with a few hot dogs, and a story of a Japanese guy called Kobe, And he did something quite remarkable. A few years back, and he's still doing it quite remarkably today. And quite honestly, you look at him, and you look at his results and you think, "How did it happen?" How did it happen? Well, he did things his own way. He thought like a freak, and he found a way of beating all the competition. And that's what I want to prove to you today. So sit back and listen to another story, yes, another story teaching you about Kobe and the hot dog eating contest. Now, today's story is about a Japanese college student who did something remarkable in the kind of unremarkable field now I didn't even know you could do this kind of stuff. But he took on the sort of challenge that most of us wouldn't dream about or even want to. And absolutely smashed it. Now, in the autumn of 2000 a young man who will be come to known as Kobe. Because he's got a very hard name to pronounce. Was studying economics, Youkagi University, i assume that is in Japan. And he lived with his girlfriend Kumi. So it's Kobe and Kumi, and they lit the apartment by candles since they could no longer afford the electricity bill. And neither of them came from a family of significant means Kobe's father was a disciple at a Buddhist temples giving tours about his history, and they were behind on the rent as well. So things weren't good. Now his girlfriend Kumi heard about a contest that paid five grand to the winner. Without telling Kobi, she sent in a postcard to sign him up. It was a televised eating competition. Now, this was on the surface a stupid thing to do. Because Kobe wasn't gluttonous in the least. He is a small bloke, he had a slight build and stood barely five foot eight. He did however, have a strong stomach and a good appetite. As a child, he always cleaned his plate and sometimes the sisters plates too, and it also believe that size could be overrated. Now one of his childhood heroes was a great sumo champion, who was known as the wolf who was relatively light but compensated with superior technique. He overcome the big fatties by doing things in a different way, which is what the story is all about. Now, Kobi reluctantly agreed to enter the contest and he's only chance to was that out think the competition, because these guys had been over eating for years and years and years, so they were used to it. Now at university, he'd been learning about game theory, and now it came in handy. The contest