“There was a time, not that long ago, when I was the world’s most successful failure. I was thirty years old, and making over $1 million a week. I had surrounded myself with all the trappings of major Wall-Street-wealth—mansions, limousines, yachts, private jets, helicopters, a small army of domestic servants, and a rapidly growing army of ultra-loyal young stockbrokers, who’d sworn undying loyalty to me in return for one simple promise: that I would make them rich. This I did.
In fact, I taught them everything; from goal-setting, to visualization, to manifestation, to affirmations, to incantations, to the law of attraction, to the art of selling, to the science of closing, to the power of positive thinking, to the even greater power of taking action, I drilled these techniques into their hearts and minds, using daily motivational speeches, which I delivered with the zest and zeal of a preacher. And the results were staggering.
It was a time of great clarity in my life, a time when I was able to see things in ways that I had never seen them before and devise cutting-edge success-strategies that I had never even considered. When problems arose, the answers would simply pop into my head; and when I stood before the boardroom to speak, the words would just flow. But, alas, I ended up sabotaging my success, by putting greed before ethics, and I lost everything, including my own self-respect.
My story is widely known, so I won’t go into detail, other than to say that I’ve done many things I’m not proud of. And while I have no interest in glamorizing my former-life as a rogue, I am very keen on using it as a cautionary tale. You see, I was born with a God-given gift—the ability to motivate and inspire people, and to help people take control of their lives, and to live with strength and passion. And now I plan to spend the rest of my life using this gift responsibly.
My goal is to help people achieve true success, which goes far beyond money and possession. And this sort of success—meaning, true success—does not happen by accident. There’s a formula for it, one which I had to go through a whole lot of crap (including twenty-two months in jail) to finally figure out. But now that I have it, I’m dying to share it with people around the globe. In fact, I can hardly wait.
After all, it’s become my purpose.”
Jordan Belfort, July, 2009