Jordan Belfort: Hunger for Power and Overconfidence

Perry 1

Dawson Perry

Mme. Hamel

English 11

May 31, 2018

Jordan Belfort: Hunger for power and Overconfidence.

        Jordan Belfort was born in 1962 in Queens, New York. He said in an interview that: “I was a very smart kid, I was a great salesman and I was driven to make money”. He also stated that he was emotionally immature and insecure through his life. He started off his career selling meat and seafood in the 80’s until that company eventually went bankrupt. He then founded an investment company named Stratton Oakmont which he used to take advantage of the system and make millions illegally. His brokers “pushed stocks onto their unsuspecting clients, which helped inflate the stocks’ prices, then the company would sell off its own holdings in these stocks at a great price” to get Stratton Oakmont up to a peak net worth of approximately $400 million.

 Belfort was a criminal that took pride in cheating his way to the top and was driven by his hunger for power which inevitably lead to his downfall due to his overconfidence. He wanted to be successful bad enough that he lied and cheated in order to make his way up the social ladder. He used the money that he had made from his new found investment company to lead a reckless and carefree lifestyle full of parties and drugs. He found himself highly addicted to a type of drug called Quaaludes leading to many accidents because he was impaired. He managed to crash his helicopter into his own lawn and also sunk his yacht while under the influence. He encouraged his unhealthy and dangerous practices in his firm where there was frequent substance abuse and other shenanigans such as a few of his traders paying a secretary $5,000 in order for her to shave her head or organizing a midget throwing competition in his office for entertainment. Belfort believed he was on top of the world and well beyond the law. This overconfidence in his ability to avoid the law eventually lead to him being exposed for his illegal practices such as money laundering and fraud.