Waitākere College

Book of the Week - No Excuses by Dave Letele


The amazing true story of Dave "the Brown Buttabean" Letele and how he turned his life around. Dave Letele's incredible life has taken him from footy to failure, crime to community, fat to fit and riches to rags - and back again. 

Today, he is an award-winning community leader and life coach who, as the face of Buttabean Motivation, helps literally thousands of ordinary people achieve their goals. He provides targeted health and fitness programmes, helps young people find jobs, and runs a foodshare for those in need. But it wasn't always like that. He has overcome poverty, obesity, intergenerational trauma, depression, the lure of a life of crime and his own demons. Like Dave says, "I've been at the bottom and I've been at the top, and everywhere in between ... If I can do it, you can. No excuses." This is his story.