After an unsettled childhood and a nervous breakdown at 29, John figured out he had a real issue with negative self-talk. He would constantly put himself down. And so began a journey to fix himself by changing his underlying assumptions. To see through the hype and establish what's real.

In the words of Mark Twain, '...There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics'. Statistics can give you any answer you want - depending on your agenda and the assumptions and agenda you feed into them. Having recognised and applied this notion in his personal life, it was one he would later carry through to his work in automotive efficiency, too.

Meet John German: the man who helped expose the Volkswagen emissions scandal.