America has a fascination with anything related to true crime and criminals. This fascination is apparent by how many movies celebrating the lives of criminals have been produced and made by Hollywood. These movies went on to become blockbusters and even earned awards for their lead actors and actresses. One actor, Leonardo Di Caprio, was given the role of Jordan Belfort in “The Wolf of Wall Street”. Jordan Belfort made millions through a fraudulent investment scheme during the 1990s. The movie featured how Belfort started his operation and how he pleaded guilty for money laundering and securities fraud.
Jordan Belfort
America is also a land of second chances, given the fact that Jordan Belfort only served twenty-two months in jail after pleading guilty to investment frauds and was fined a total of $110 million. Belfort is now living the life of a motivational speaker discussing the difference between greed, passion, and ambition. Likewise, there is still a lot of criticism on how Belfort only served twenty-two months instead of four years for a crime that stole millions of monies from innocent people while his victims are left with nothing. As of today, Belfort is said to have paid $14 million out of the $110 million fines imposed upon him by the courts. It was the courts’ decision for Belfort to pay fifty per cent of his income for restitution for his defrauded investors.
Precarious Life
Belfort and his sales team frauded investors through a pump and dump system of shares earning commissions for their actions. The high earnings that Belfort got from this system led to greed and a precarious lifestyle that involves a lot of sex and drugs.
Estimated Net Worth
It is estimated that the 2020 Net Worth of Jordan Belfort is worth around negative $100 million because of the fine that he still has to pay. Belfort is operating his own company with the main business of providing sales training and wealth building discussions. In his own words, Belfort claims that he is a wolf that already changed to become a more benevolent character.
Lessons That Can Be Learned from Belfort
Jordan Belfort has committed a crime that defrauded people of their lifelong savings. Although there are a lot of criticisms on how easily Belfort was punished for his crimes, it is still too early to determine if Belfort is aiming to get away with paying the total amount stated by the court for restitution. As part of Belfort’s motivational talks, he talks about not looking at the past of a person since that person is not his past. As taken verbatim from Belfort. “No matter what happened to you in your past, you are not your past. You are the resources and the capabilities you glean from it. And that is the basis for all change.”
Belfort has a point that you can gather the resources, capabilities, and the lessons learned from your past for the basis of your change. Belfort’s so-called “transformation into benevolence” has made it possible for him to talk based on experience about straight-line selling system which is aimed to actively and massively grow the marketing and sales department of any business.
