The Title, The Wolf of the Wallstreet did not just appear out of nowhere. There sure needs to be a story behind it. Cause there is a story behind everything.
Today we will be talking about Jordan Belford, the famous American Entrepreneur, former stockbroker, Author, and Motivational speaker. Jordan Belfort has a Net worth of 100 million dollars in negative which is nothing compared to what he used to have before.
If you would like to learn more about Jordan Belford, the most superior salesman of all time then continue reading this blog.
Who is Jordan Belford
Jordan Belford is an American Entrepreneur, Author, motivational speaker, and former stockbroker. He was born on July 9, 1962, in Bronx, New York City. He was born and got up in a middle-class family where both his parents were accountants, Max and Leah.
Between the time of finishing high school and entering college he was about 16 years old (in my calculation), Jordan along with his friend, Elliot Loewenstern started a business selling Shaved ice to the Tourist is the beach. This start-up was basically a short-time business from where he earned about 15,000 to 20,000 dollars. He wanted to become a dentist and earn a bachelor’s degree in biology so he used that money which was generated by selling shaved ice to tourists by Elliot and him and got into the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. No sooner did he start college than he realized that being a doctor is not the way to become rich and dropped out.
After dropping out of college the first thing was to get his money back which he wasted on his admission. As once you have cleared out your fees the authority will not give you back the amount. He started a butcher shop and started selling meat, fish, chicken, and many more meat items. He made a huge amount of profit at the beginning of his business. Later the business was shut down as it failed to reach Jordan’s expectations. A few years later Jordan joined a firm called L.F Rothschild and started working as a trainee. There he got the knowledge of how the Securities industry works and started growing interested in the stock market. Unfortunately, on October 9, 1989, the stock market industry crashed, this day is marked as Black Monday. Due to the unexpected crash of the stock market, the brokerage firm went through a major loss and financial problems. This was the sole reason why so many people lost their jobs in that era. Many salesmen lost their jobs and Jordan Belford was one of them.
The Rise of Jordan Belford
After losing his job Jordan was broke. But his wife at the time, Denise Lombardo did not lose hope and motivated him to apply for jobs. Soon, he applied for the position at The Investment Centre, a normal day-to-day firm that does not use to make a huge amount of profit as the firm used to trade Penny stocks. The penny stocks do not hold much value in the market but the commission of the firm was legit 50%. Jordan did not care about the firm growing instead he was more interested in becoming wealthy himself. He used to sell the penny stocks higher than the market value which gave him enough commission for him to go. He worked in this firm for about 2 years and became the best salesman in the firm. Jordan earned about 70,000 to 80,000 dollars in a month working at a low-key firm that the people did not know that it existed. In 1989, Jordan then formed his own company along with his business partner Danny Porsche and named it Stratton Oakmont, which was a franchisee of Stratton Brokerage firm and Securities. Later Stratton Oakmont bought the Stratton Brokerage firm and became one.
Stratton Oakmont – Jordan Belford’s First Workplace
Stratton Oakmont was a firm made by Jordan Belfort in 1989. In this Firm, Jordan used to manipulate the penny stocks which used to trade over the counter (OTC). Do you ask what is Penny stocks? well, penny stocks are nothing but stocks and shares of very small firms which do not hold much ground in the stock market. These firms have a failure rate of 70% on average. As they were penny stocks the information about the firm and the stock was not available and they used to trade over the counter, not on the stock exchange. What Jordan used to do is a pure art of deception or marketing strategy. Due to insufficient information about the stock, the stocks were traded over the counter. Jordan used to buy penny stocks at a low price or the given price and used to write a script of false information “saying that the firm is getting a new contract or the firm is launching a new product that is running smoothly in the market. Our firm is a great friend of the penny stock firm. Our research analyst has also stated in his report that the stock price of the firm will raise a minimum of 5 to 6%, it is alright if it does not raise to 5 or 6% it will eventually raise to 3 to 4%. You will get a handsome amount of profit when you sell the stock and your financial problem will come to an end. Opportunities like these do not come and go that easily”. Actually, Jordan used to promote the penny stocks of those firms that were about to dissolve. The script was given to all the salesmen and told them to read the same script to the clients and manipulate them to invest in the firm. The salesmen were also told to sell the stocks that Stratton Oakmont has invested in. If the clients were not interested in buying the shares the salesmen used aggressive manipulation. Once the clients start investing in the stocks bought by Stratton Oakmont the value of the stock eventually starts rising and Jordan and his friends sold their shares and received a massive profit from the stock. Once they have done so Jordan used to tell the salesmen to stop promoting the stocks. As the salesmen stopped promoting the stocks and people stopped investing in the firm the value of the stock eventually dropped again resulting in heavy losses for the investors as they have been manipulated and all the information that bought them into investing in the stock was fake. Jordan made his first million dollars at the age of 26 years old.
Good things Fall apart for Jordan Belford
Jordan used to follow a very different sales technique. At first, he used to sell genuine stocks and used to tell the clients to invest on rather bluechip or any other fundamental stocks. Once the client starts getting a profit after investing in bluechip then Jordan starts his show of scam. By the time when the value of the stock purchased by Jordan starts rising, he used to sell the stock. Jordan used the money which he generated from selling his shares of the stock to throw big parties and used to live his life. He bought properties, many sports cars, a private chopper, a private boat, and even a private jet from the money he had generated by making the clients fool. He use to give a huge amount of bonuses to all the salesmen working for him. he had hired passionate salesmen as they were the key to his success. By this time Jordan was addicted to the intake of drugs including marijuana, cocaine, LSD, and many more. Once he was drugged so bad that he crashed his chopped in front of his house and almost even destroyed his Ferrari on the way back to his mansion from the country club. Stratton Oakmont has earned about 1 billion to 1.3 billion dollars in assets and has also taken over 40 businesses with the use of an initial public offering. Jordan too has earned millions and millions of dollars. Jordan used to keep his money in the Swiss bank through money Laundering. As you know good things fall apart, Jordan was caught by the FBI and was charged with Securities fraud, money laundering, and many more charges. He was announced with 4 years of prison time. Jordan gave his testimony for his friends and the time was then reduced to 22 months and was stated for a fine of 110 million dollars and was banned for life from all the securities industries. Along with the arrest of Jordan Belford, Stratton Oakmont was also closed in 1996.
Jordan Belford Asks To Sell A Pen
During his time in his prison, Jordan met the famous comedian Tommy Chong. Jordan told him the whole story of how he managed to become a multi-millionaire to a bankrupt. Tommy Chong really liked his story and recommended he write a book about his story. After his prison days were over Jordan wrote his first book “The wolf of the Wallstreet” which was a big hit in the market. Later this book got a Hollywood movie adaptation and Leonardo DiCaprio played Jordan Belford. This movie made about 336 million dollars. Jordan wrote two more books “catching the wolf of the wall street” and “way of the wolf”. These two books were a big hit too. Later he opened another company where he teaches his method of sales technique which he calls straight line persuasion and besides he is a motivational speaker.
Networth of Jordan Belford
Jordan Belford has earned millions and millions of dollars in the past and his Networth before was around 100 million to 150 million dollars. Jordan’s Networth then and now is a hell and heaven difference. Currently, his Networth is negative which is -100 million dollars.
Conclusion
Jordan Belford is the famous American Entrepreneur, former stockbroker, Author, and Motivational speaker who used to have a firm called Stratton Oakmont where he used to earn by making a fool of the clients. He became a millionaire and then bankrupt. But Jordan has proven a point that he is the businessman of the century.
Thank You So Much For Reading 😉 <3