Jordan Belfort – the Real Wolf of Wall Street – Live Interview

This morning, I watched an interview on YouTube featuring Jordan Belfort, the real Wolf of Wall Street.

As is quite common, there was a book before the movie (coming soon with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Jordan Belfort).

Leonardo and Jordan

The interview itself is worth a watch (embedded at bottom of this post), and here are some key notes/quotes:

On successful people, they: “See things as they are, not worse than they are. And then see them better than they are. and then make them that way.”

“People say, “oh, money doesn’t matter,” I’m like, “oh, so you’re broke.”

“Money is not going to make you happy but an absence of money can buy you an awful lot of misery.”

“You are not your past, you are the resources and capabilities you gleamed from it.”

“You what money is like?… it’s like oxygen… you need it to breathe, but there is only so much you can use in one lifetime.”

“This is not a decade where you can just sit on your hands and let be business as usual… you need to do something, because it’s not the status quo… it’s a decade of empowerment – people that make the right moves right now are going to do really really well. The people that subscribe to the old thinking of the past, which is bankrupt thinking, which is just working for a company and thinking the government is going to come in for ya… [no way]… it’s just not the way it’s going to be.”

“four key things [to make it]:
1.) Vision – the ability to create a clear and compelling vision for the future, e.g., Gandhi, Mandela, Branson, Gates, Cameron.
2.) Manage your State – the way you feel in the moment, your physiological state. Be certain about what you are doing, have clarity and have courage.
3.) Beliefs – e.g., a governor on a vehicle (speed-regulation), interpret things how you want and root-out limiting beliefs.
4.) Strategies – essentially, they are essential.

The last things is the glue, which is just your standards (e.g. paying all of your bills) — your must in life. Raise your standards, don’t settle for ‘average'”

When asked what his mentality was during different stages in his life, Jordan’s replies were:

• Before going jail: “Money, Power, Sex”
• After going jail: “Giving, Family, Freedom”

 

Interview with Jordan Belfort:

 

If you are interested, I found a few more good quotes by Belfort on this page.

 

Update 2-11-2014: A fact about Jordan that I recently came across is that is net worth is estimated to be -$100m. One source, who apparently specializes in estimating the net worth of celebrities, says about Jordan’s financial situation:

“As per the terms of his conviction, Jordan Belfort is required to pay $110 million in restitution to more than 1500 defrauded clients. To date he has only paid back $11.6 million worth of restitution.”

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