Lessons from a broker's tale of crash and burn

Jordan Belfort achieved notoriety as the entrepreneurial head of Stratton Oakmont, a Long Island brokerage with a reputation for hard sales tactics, and amassed a personal fortune worth a reputed $100m.

But his spectacular rise was followed by a crashing fall as prosecutors exposed boiler-room practices at the firm, which resulted in a 22-month prison term for securities fraud for its disgraced chairman.

After serving his time and ridding himself of cocaine addiction, Mr Belfort wrote a well-received memoir about his experiences on Wall Street and is now touring as a speaker, using the motivational skills he employed as head of a sales firm but with a new focus on ethics.

He visits the UK for the first time this month and will be in Leeds on January 26 to deliver his talk, entitled Breakthrough to Extreme Wealth and Success.

In a telephone interview from his Los Angeles home, Mr Belfort, now 47, told the Yorkshire Post about his regrets and the lessons he has learned from life.

"Making money and a lot of it and maintaining values are not mutually exclusive. I have been there and done that and made mistakes. I have been there and realised that essentially true wealth cannot be achieved slashing and burning and neglecting the people you love."

He added: "If you desire to be wealthy, it is not that difficult. It does happen overnight. There's only one way to get rich. That's quickly. That does not mean get rich quick. You have to do the preparation."

There are four basic steps to take on the road towards extreme wealth, he said. First, an individual needs to integrate his internal and external worlds. People often make the mistake on focusing on one or the other.

It is vital to have a vision for the future. Mr Belfort said: "If you want to be successful you have to communicate that vision in an inspiring way."

Second, an individual must be able to manage his or her emotional state so this does not interfere with rational decision-making. The third step, according to Mr Belfort, involves beliefs – and the limitations that people impose on themselves.

Mr Belfort believes people can be taught to "squash limiting beliefs". He said: "When I had my brokerage firm I was able to train any kind from any race, class or socio-economic background. Six months later they would be kicking butt and be rich.

"Likewise, I was also teaching them to implode... and causing them to crash and burn. I exemplified the system. I rose high and I crashed and burned."

The fourth step, he said, concerns strategy – how an individual goes about what they do, how they motivate themselves, how they make decisions and how they communicate.

At Stratton Oakmont, Mr Belfort presided over a system that cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars. Looking back, he said he has regrets.

"I hurt people and I was running that strategy and showing people how to be very successful without ethics. I cannot change the mistakes of the past but I can learn from them. My goal is to try to teach people to become successful without sacrificing integrity and ethics. I made it in the real world and failed in the real world."

He added: "There are many people who have said to me everything in your life was planned because you get to use your story to help other people. I would like to think that's true."

More details of the talk at www.jordanbelfort2010.com

THE RISE, FALL AND RISE OF JASON BELFORT

America loves a story of redemption, so it is unsurprising that Jordan Belfort's life story is to be given the Hollywood treatment.

According to the Internet Movie Database, a reliable guide to films in production, Martin Scorsese is involved with the project, as is Leonardo DiCaprio who is scheduled to star as the Bronx-born broker.

Mr DiCaprio has said: "It is important that we learn the lessons that people Iike Jordan can teach us. He stands as an example of the transformative qualities of ambition and hard work. He is a motivator without peer."