One of the goals of this blog is to help entrepreneurs think about common problems in totally new ways. To that end, I would like to introduce you to Takeru Kobayashi, who as a rookie in 2001 smashed the world hotdog eating record simply by rethinking the problem.
Up to that time, the record for the most hotdogs consumed in the allotted 12 minutes was 25 hotdogs. The winners were super-sized competitors with big appetites. Enter Takeru Kobayashi, listed at 5′ 8” and 128 lbs. A joke, right? To the amazement of the crowd on July 4, 2001, Takeru Kobayashi consumed 50 hotdogs in 12 minutes. He not only broke the record, he smashed it, eating twice the previous record. So how did he do it? By rethinking the problem.
Contestants at a hotdog eating contest have presented a stack of Nathans hotdogs in buns and a glass of water to help keep things lubricated. As you might imagine, consuming a hotdog in a bun requires some chewing since the bread is rather dry and doesn’t slide down very easy.
The rules never said that the hotdog and the bun had to be consumed together, so Takeru Kobayashi removed the hotdog from the bun and ate them separately. The hot dog’s smooth casing allowed it to be swallowed nearly whole. Then, rather than try to consume the dry bun, he plunged it into the water glass, squeezed out all the air, and then swallowed the dough ball. 12 minutes later he had consumed 50 hotdogs, obliterating the previous record.
At 128 lbs he surely didn’t fit the mold of a competitive eater. He attributed his success to simply rethinking the problem. Sometimes you need to pretend you are a 5-year-old kid again and ask “why” over and over until a new solution becomes obvious. Why do you serve a hotdog on a bun? Why do you eat the bread and meat together? Why can’t you dunk your bun in the water like a cookie in milk? Why… etc.
Do you ever challenge conventional wisdom in your industry to discover new solutions to common problems?
