Dave Letele Recap: No Excuses

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Being the son of a mongrel mob leader must be challenging. Well, for those of you who listened to the last episode with the Amazing Dave Littelli, otherwise known as Brown Butterbean, he has the most incredible story. His life was tipped upside down. He was in very, very dark places, but he has turned it around. He went on at one point to lose 100 kgs. He has created the BBM movement, which is impacting hundreds and hundreds of people, helping them find purpose in their lives, helping them get health back. The interview was so raw, so real. I urge you, if you haven't listened to that episode, please go back and listen to it. There's so much raw humanity that comes through in his story, and I wanted to just share a few things and hopefully you can apply these to your life today and maybe share one of these with somebody you love. Dave said a good leader leads from wherever they're needed. Lead by example, and never ask people to do things that you're not willing to do. How simple is that? But when we start to grow as leaders, sometimes it's easy to forget, hey, we got to stay grounded. We've got to make sure that we are humble. We got to let everyone around us know that we are a team. Hierarchy can have some really negative experiences and connotations. It's up to us as leaders of whatever level of leadership that is, to get down amongst it and be with your people and lead by example, you know, wherever you're needed. Maybe that's rolling up the sleeves and brushing the leaves. Whatever it is, that's what leadership is about. Dave also said, don't be afraid of failure. From failure and struggle, great success was born, and Dave can now help thousands of people improve their lives. I always think of it like this. No pressure, no diamonds. When you think of the beauty of a diamond, and some of us love diamonds more than others, I'm pretty simple guy, so I don't do a lot of diamonds. There was one point when I was 18 and I thought diamond earrings were cool, but didn't quite go that far. So no pressure, no diamonds. You've gotta embrace the struggle. Embrace the suck. Embrace. Because life is not easy. Life will not always be rainbows and butterflies. And therefore, when we're in the adversity, when we're in the struggle, it's important to know that there will be light at the other end. And as a leader, knowing that great lessons can be learned in the struggle. You know, for me I look back and, you know, I used to drink quite a bit and enjoyed one too many, way too many drinks on a regular, daily basis. It was consuming me, it was affecting my life, definitely affecting my health, my relationship. And I just thought that was going to be me for life, that this struggle was just life and that this was normal. And it's only on the other side of that now. So I've been alcohol free for two and a half years, almost three years. Most people would have looked at it and been like, james, you're just normal, you're not an alcoholic. But I think most of us don't want to admit to it, even if it's two beers a day or a glass of wine with dinner when you want to have it and you look forward to having it and there's a reliance on having it. You know, we all sit somewhere on that alcoholic spectrum. So for me to just remove it fully was a huge challenge. But it allowed me to look back at the tough times, the adversity, and realize there was a lot of pressure, a lot of struggle. But under great pressure comes those diamonds, those learnings, those lessons, those aha moments. So don't be afraid of failure. From failure and struggle, great success is born. And that's David's words.

Choice implies an equal start point. It's not choice that Dave was born into a life he had no control over and couldn't even see the head start that others were getting. He was born into this situation, so he really feels that choice implies an equal start point. And so I want you to think about that. What was your start point? What were you given at the start of life? Were you given gifts or were you given challenges? What have you done with those? We can become victims or we can become victors. And the choice is ours. Here's what I want you to take away today. Big message from Dave. Get up and start. Get up and talk. Don't wait for the system to help you, because you'll wait forever. And Dave talked very openly about his challenges with the system, the man, the government. So if you want to make a change, grassroots, go and do it. Don't wait for bureaucracy to do it for you. Go get it done. So in Dave's words, you know, get up and start. Get up and talk now, folks, next month, the High Performance Leadership Program is coming to Christchurch. I am getting very excited and we're almost sold out of tickets, so if you'd like to come and join us. It's limited to just 70 people, then please jump on the website and register before all the tickets are gone. It will sell out. It's jjlochlan.com and you'll see a tab at the top. Leadership training. Come and join us at hpl. It's going to be incredible. We've got our former Prime Minister John Key coming. We've got Ali Adams, the CEO of Christchurch nz and we've also got Sir Steve Hanson, the former All Blacks head coach. It's going to be incredible. Two and a half days of fun, of learning, of leadership. I'm in my prime when I'm talking about leadership. I can geek out on that stuff all day. So if you want to join us, please do. There's just a few tickets left at the point of this recording going live and just to reinforce it. What did Dave say? Get up and start. Get up and talk. Well, I'm going to back it up with get out there and lead your life on purpose.