Jordan Belfort’s years on Wall Street became famous for their excess, and drugs were a big part of the story. In this short clip from his 2019 London Real interview, Brian Rose asks him why. Was it the emptiness of making huge sums of money without creating anything?
Belfort’s answer goes deeper than Wall Street culture. It is about insecurity, the belief that success will fix it, and what happens when it does not.
Two reasons, not one
Belfort agrees there is a culture of drug use in finance, on Wall Street and in the City of London alike. But that, he says, is only one part of it. The bigger part is personal.
He describes himself as an insecure teenager: not the captain of the football team, not the popular guy, not smooth with girls. He was a science geek who planned to become a doctor and studied biology. Brian admits he was a science geek too.
“Once I get rich, I’ll feel good”
Belfort says he carried those insecurities into adulthood, along with a simple promise to himself: once I am rich and powerful, I will feel good. While you are still chasing success, he explains, the promise keeps you going. If you feel uncomfortable in your own skin, you tell yourself it is only because you have not made it yet.
Then you make it. You get everything you wanted, and you realise, in his words, “I still feel the same way inside.” That, he says, is the moment that changes everything.
Not just Wall Street
Belfort says the same pattern plays out in Hollywood. Brian points to young stars who became famous early and struggled. Belfort’s point is that the striving itself is bearable, because you believe the feeling will go away once you reach the goal. When you reach it and nothing has changed, “that’s when the real panic sets in.”
He applies that to himself. He became rich and powerful, had plenty of attention from women, and was still the same person underneath. That, he says, is when many people start self-medicating.
Success amplifies you
The line at the heart of the clip is a simple one: “success doesn’t change you, it just amplifies you.” Whatever insecurities you had before, he argues, money makes them bigger. Add an industry where people make money very fast, and the boxes you thought would make you happy get ticked quickly, leaving the same question: why am I still not happy?
That, in his telling, is when people start to implode.
What to take from it
Belfort’s warning applies well beyond finance. If you are chasing a goal because you believe it will finally make you feel good about yourself, it is worth asking what you will do if it does not. The inner work, his story suggests, cannot be bought later.
This is Jordan Belfort sharing his own experience, not medical advice. If you are worried about your own or someone else’s drug or alcohol use, speak to your doctor or a local support service.
Who is Jordan Belfort?
Jordan Belfort is a former stockbroker and the author of the bestselling memoir The Wolf of Wall Street. In the 1990s he ran Stratton Oakmont, before pleading guilty to securities fraud and serving 22 months in prison, where he began writing his book. Today he teaches sales and persuasion through his Straight Line system.
This clip comes from his 2019 London Real episode, in which he talks with Brian Rose about money, drugs, prison and rebuilding his life. From the same interview, see The Wolf Of Wall Street: What The Movie Got Right And Wrong.
See everything Jordan Belfort has done with London Real on his guest page: Jordan Belfort on London Real.
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Transcript
Transcript: Jordan Belfort – Why Success Doesn’t Change You, It Amplifies You
0:00 Brian Rose: Tell me about when you’re making all this money out there, and yet I know the feeling: you don’t actually do anything, you don’t create anything. Is that why a lot of times the drugs come out, part of it? You think it’s trying to fill a hole?
0:10 Jordan Belfort: Yeah, so there’s two parts. That’s definitely part, because there is a culture on Wall Street, in the City in London, for that kind of thing. I’ll say that’s one part of it, but there’s a bigger part of it too. The bigger part of it is that most of us, and I’ll be the first to admit that, when I emerged from my adolescence I wasn’t the captain of the football team, the popular guy, the suave one with the girls. Like most of us, we struggled with those things.
0:36 Brian Rose: We were teenagers, and we were science geeks. Me too.
0:38 Jordan Belfort: I was a science geek. I was going to be a doctor. I did biology, biochemistry, scored perfect on my MCATs. I was that guy, right?
0:47 Jordan Belfort: And so I go into my adulthood with these insecurities, saying: you know what, once I get rich and I get powerful, then I’ll feel good. So while you are out there striving for success and clawing for it, even though you feel insecure a lot and you don’t feel like you’re really comfortable in your own skin, you say: I know why, it’s because I don’t have success yet. But then you achieve massive success, and you get everything that you always wanted, and then: uh-oh. I still feel the same way inside. What do I do now?
1:26 Jordan Belfort: And that’s what you see happen, not just on Wall Street, but in Hollywood.
1:30 Brian Rose: Yeah, people like the Lindsay Lohans of the world.
1:32 Jordan Belfort: These child [unclear], they get so famous. And while they’re trying to get famous, they’re OK, because: I don’t feel great, but I know I’ll feel great once I get famous, because that’s my vision. When I achieve my vision, when I get that, then I’ll feel good. Then you get there, and that’s when the real panic sets in.
1:49 Jordan Belfort: So with me, it’s like I said: if I ever get rich and powerful… And I had every girl after me, I’m rich, I look… And I’m still the same guy. That’s when I think a lot of the problems start. You want to start self-medicating, because, again, success doesn’t change you, it just amplifies you. So any insecurities you have become even bigger, and so forth.
2:13 Jordan Belfort: And I think that’s a lot of it, as much as it is true that you’re not creating anything. But also, because it’s a very lucrative industry and people make money very fast, the things that you thought would make you happy, you check a box: wait a second, I’m still not happy. What do I do now? And that’s when the panic sets in, and people start to really implode.
