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The Wolf of Wall Street

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The Wolf of Wall Street The Wolf of Wall Street Top row (from left to right): Bilaji Ram, Head of BFSI – Australia & New Zealand, HCL Technologies; Melanie Evans, Chief of Staff, Westpac; Daryl Babus, Head of Mobility & Customer Analytics, BT Financial; Rebecca Kerr, Head of Technology – Group Operations, AMP; Matt Paterson, Operations & Change Transformation Executive; Greg Schapkaitz, Head of Sales Division, AMP SMSF; Stephen Dunne, Divisional Director – Digital Platforms, Macquarie Bank; Nicholle Lindner, Head of Cards, St George Bank; Tom Higgins, Head of Technology, IAG. Bottom row (from left to right): Dean Firth, Executive Director, Macquarie Bank; Douglas Talbot, COO – Investments, AMP Capital; Tony Craddock, Chief Architect – Direct Insurance, IAG; Jordan Belfort; Tom Thomas, APAC Business Services, HCL Technologies; Angelo Rentzepis, Advice Sales Leader, AMP; Glenn Goodman, Global Head of Data Quality, ANZ. FST Media and HCL Technologies hosted an States. No-one in my family has ever broken any exclusive roundtable luncheon with Divisional law – not even jaywalked. My mum, who is now Heads of Operations, Technology and Distribution, 80 years old, is an amazing lady. She went to law from Australia’s leading banks and insurance school at the age of 64 and became an attorney at companies. The discussion featured the ‘Wolf 68. She was the oldest woman in New York to pass of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort as the international the New York State bar. She then spent 10 years guest speaker. doing pro bono work for womens’ foundations and the homeless. My dad, crazy as he is in my book Jordan Belfort: First I would like to tell you a [The Wolf of Wall Street], became a CPA [Certified little bit about my life story because it is a miracle Practising Accountant]. He is a very ethical guy. I am where I am today. I come from one of the When I was growing up I knew I was supposed most ethical, well-respected families in the United to be a doctor. My mum is Jewish. As I was being Financial Services Technology Media where the market meets the Wolf of Wall Street spoon fed apple sauce in the highchair, she would It became a defining characteristic of how I say to me, “The only noble way to be wealthy is to viewed myself. I knew I was going to have money, be a doctor. You have to be a doctor.” It was like and I ended up taking that money and putting hypnosis as the apple sauce was going in. myself through college. I ended up taking one My mum and dad were professionals, incredibly misstep on the road to entrepreneurial success, intelligent, hard working – and broke. They lacked however, and that was spending one day in dental two core things. Firstly, they were completely risk school, believe it or not. It all came back to the averse. They had the Depression-era mentality. apple sauce hypnosis. When I was 21 years old and They never bought a home and when 50 years later graduating from college, if you had asked me what I was making $50 million a year and offered to buy I wanted to be in life I would have said rich. But “I always had a hunger a house for them they asked what they could do I equated money and doing it the right way with to get ahead.” with a house. They never would take a risk and it being a doctor. I decided I did not want to be a – Jordan Belfort is very difficult to become successful in life playing doctor because it was another eight to nine years defence. Sure, you need to play some defence in of university. Dentistry, however, was only four life and be careful, but without playing offence, it years. I would still be Dr Belfort, my mum would is hard to get ahead. be happy, I would be rich, and everything would Secondly, they despised the whole concept of be perfect. sales. That is pretty ironic because I came to be So I actually applied to dentistry and got in. But considered the top sales trainer around. But in my that is when things started to go awry. The first family, the word “salesman” was synonymous with day of dental school, we had the dean walk in and the words “slime” and “bucket.” say, “Welcome to the Baltimore College of Dental I think we tend to end up either modelling our Surgery. You should be very proud to be here. You parents or going the opposite way. I went the are going to be a pillar of the community.” It looked opposite way. I always had a hunger to get ahead. pretty good so far. Then he added, “But let me say From the age of eight, I had paper rounds and I was this: the golden age of dentistry is over because knocking on doors trying to extend my paper route. if you are here to make a lot of money you are At the age of 10, I was shovelling driveways after probably in the wrong place.” I got up and left and snowstorms to make money. I never returned. I was doing really well with shovelling driveways, I could not bear to tell my mum for a few months but then it did not snow for a few years so I could so I hid in Maryland until my money ran out. Then not make any money. That is when I decided to I sat down with my parents and broke the news, become a magician. I went out and I bought a “Mum, Dad, I am going to be a salesman.” Then I little book on magic and then put an ad in the local told them it was worse than that: “I am going to be newspaper. Soon the phone started ringing off the selling meat and fish.” I answered an ad and was hook for children’s parties and I panicked. I ran selling meat and seafood door-to-door and that to my dad and said, “Dad, I did not think anyone was the first sales job I had. would call.” He said, “All right, let’s go.” I had a knack for selling. I broke the company He took me to the magic store. My parents always record on the first day and the work started to supported my ventures even though they were not flow. After a few weeks, I decided to open my own like that. They were amazing. And so I became a company. I soon found I had a knack for training magician, ‘The Amazing Belfort’, with the top hat, salesman. Before I knew it, I had 26 trucks on the the whole thing. road and I was making a lot of money. But I was I hit it big for the first time at the age of 16. I went making all the mistakes a young entrepreneur out to the local beach, called Joans Beach, which makes. I was over-expanding and I was under- is huge. On a sunny Saturday or Sunday afternoon capitalised. To make a long story short: I went you might find a million people swarming the bankrupt. Soon I was heading to Wall Street to find beach, packed blanket-to-blanket. I was on the myself a job. beach and I noticed they were all moaning because It was not easy to get hired on Wall Street the kiosk was half a mile away. I said, “Hmm, maybe because it was the bull market of 1986. Plus my if I went out tomorrow morning and got some ice resume was not looking that good. I was a dental cream and chips and Milky Ways and Snickers, I school drop-out who had just declared bankruptcy. could sell them blanket-to-blanket and make a ton So I went into L. F. Rothschild – back then a blue of money. I will charge a buck a piece.” chip company – and said, “ I will work harder than Next morning I woke up, found a little ice cream anybody. You do not understand what I am capable distributor, and bought all my stuff. The average of. I can sell like no-one else, just give me a shot.” cost was a dime [10 cents] an item and I sold it all The guy looked at me and said, “Either you are within an hour at a dollar each. I made $125 in an going to be the biggest broker in Wall Street history hour when I was 16. That was back in 1978 when or you are going to end up in jail.” The guy was a the minimum wage was $1.35 an hour. The next genius. He was right on both counts. day, what did I do? I went back with four coolers So he hired me and for six months I worked as 2 instead and sold all of them and made $500. a trainee, working hard for $80 a week. It was the Wolf of Wall Street costing me a $100 to commute so I was going a famous quote by Sun-Tzu that is in the movie Wall backwards. I was barely making ends meet. Finally, Street. It says, “Every battle is won before it is ever my first day as a broker came. It was 19 October, fought.” It is about strategic preparation, knowing 1987 – Black Monday. On my first day I watched every possible eventuality before you engage in in shock and awe as the market went down 508 a battle in military terms and working out how points, and the firm I was with, that had been in to counter each eventuality and how to achieve business for 112 years, shut its doors.
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