Jordan Belfort is still raking it in: his book, the rights to the film The Wolf of Wall Street and now his motivational seminars on sales and success. And the truth is that, even though we are talking about a fraudster, there’s no denying that what he did was far from easy.
Belfort set himself a goal and achieved it, and what he did really wasn’t much worse than what is still done today almost legally.
Companies hire Belfort to teach their salespeople the art of persuasion in sales. It is easy to sell caviar to the rich and crap to the poor. The hard part is selling crap to the rich. And that, basically, is what Belfort and his “snipers” did.
(Read: 14 secrets and truths about selling)
A reporter from The Hollywood Reporter bought a ticket to a Jordan Belfort seminar for $89. His seminars are heavily promoted through Groupon, and according to this reporter, the room was completely full on a Wednesday night.
The title of his talk was “The Truth Behind His Success”, although the reporter wrote up his impressions in an article titled “My miserable night at Jordan Belfort’s seminar“, so we gather that he didn’t enjoy the talk very much. Then again, we also assume that he bought the ticket so he could criticize a man he didn’t like at all.
What the talk is like, according to the reporter
Jordan Belfort opens by pacing the stage and saying, in essence:
“Sales is everything in life. Either you’re selling or you’re failing.
The world is divided into ducks and eagles. Ducks have a crappy story. They act like ducks because they can’t have what they want. They are prevented from getting what they want. They have what I call an ‘impossible choice’.
But eagles are different. Eagles soar above the crowd. One thing I can promise you: there isn’t a single duck in this room. Do you know why? Because ducks don’t come to this kind of event.”
There’s no doubt that the opening is really motivating, and he goes on with a speech that the reporter described as “full of aphorisms and clichés”, along the lines of: “you have to be passionate, enthusiastic as hell and an expert in your field.”
On stage he goes on to tell, in great detail, his wild and illegal stories, most of which appear in the film, and he says that Leonardo DiCaprio did an excellent, Oscar-worthy job because he spent a lot of time with the real Wolf of Wall Street to prepare for the role.
Belfort describes in great detail, and with pride, the moment he sank his $167 million yacht, as well as how high he got on the drug he liked so much. He also boasts about the countless times he cheated on his wife.
He admits that his 22 months in prison weren’t hard for him, because he was in a not-so-bad prison. “I never had to worry about being raped by Bubba every night,” Belfort jokes.
Belfort uses his talk to introduce a new real estate business, with a guaranteed method for making money from property, no upfront fees and the chance to work from home.
This is when the “undercover reporter” at the talk becomes indignant, above all when he sees so many people interested in joining Belfort’s new business.
Belfort says it is a profitable business, a kind of active game with no risk.
At that point, several people in the room get angry. A financial adviser and a lawyer stand up, visibly annoyed. They want a refund of what they paid to attend, because they feel that Belfort has insulted their intelligence by using the event to sell what they see as another kind of con for the gullible.
Several more people in the VIP seats also ask for a refund, and all of them are escorted out by the ushers.
When Belfort resumes his talk, he once again seizes the moment to try to hook the audience on a new three-day seminar for just $1,997 if 100 people sign up. Otherwise, they will have to pay $10,000, which is the value he puts on the seminar.
Nobody knows exactly how much money Jordan Belfort is making, although he is probably earning millions even though he is still being pursued for $100 million. The US Department of Justice maintains that Belfort keeps his money in an Australian company that it cannot get at.
And Jordan Belfort wraps up: “You have to dream big. That way, even if you fail, you’ll still be rich.”
Further reading
- Lessons we can learn from The Wolf of Wall Street
- 7 business lessons from Breaking Bad
- 5 business lessons from Mad Men
Featured image: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
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