Catching the Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

We've all seen the Wolf of Wall Street cult movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. I loved the film and even more the fact that it was based on the true story of Jordan Belfort, who spent 22 months in prison.

Catching the Wolf of Wall Street is about all the crazy stories that never made it to the movie. Belfort & the gang have been doing some things that were so out of order that Scorsese decided to exclude them for being too crazy to be true.

Most of the happenings in the book are after Belfort was caught and started ratting out to the FBI, which eventually led to his minimal sentence. He lost his wife, kids, friends but eventually popped up (financially) successful again. These days, Jordan is a motivational speaker, podcaster, and influencer.

I don't find his lifestyle of excess especially attractive, so I'm not following him on social media, but I did love this live podcast he recorded with the FBI agent that caught him. It's fantastic, and anyone who loved the movie will find it super interesting.

As for Belfort's sales tactics and motivational speeches, I'd recommend aspiring young sales folks to check them out. Ignoring that he went overboard, he does have a certain level of self-confidence which can benefit any salesperson. In my twenty years of sales and sales management experience, I noticed that the lack of sales confidence is the number one trait of bad sales folks. Or, as Zig Ziglar used to say: "Timid salespeople have skinny kids."

My next book impression will be from Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights book.

But Catching the Wolf of Wall Street is a real page-turner, a worthwhile light, and fun reading.