“I partied like a rock star and lived like a king”, the true story of Jordon Belfort’s rise to fortune, and then reality catching up… but not too much.

Author:	Jordan Belfort
Publisher:	Hachette Australia. First 2007, this edition 2009
ISBN:	9780733624148
Characteristics:	544 pages, Paperback ; 129 x 199 x 35mm
Source:	Street Library and returned.
Date Read:	6-Feb-2026

I really enjoyed reading about Jordan Belfort’s story about his financial career. From the outset he didn’t get to develop much respect for the industry when he was told the following by a senior broker:

“It’s a fucked-up racket, being a stockbroker. I mean, don’t get me wrong: The money’s great and everything, but you’re not creating anything, you’re not building anything. So after a while it gets kinda monotonous.” He paused, as if searching for the right words. “The truth is we’re nothing more than sleazoid salesmen. None of us has any idea what stocks are going up! We’re all just throwing darts at a board and, you know, churning and burning. Anyway, you’ll figure all this out soon enough.”

The Wolf of Wall Street, page 9.

The author covers in great detail all of the shenanigans that happened, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while. The movie covers this much better with its well-executed fast-moving scenes. Jordan’s selling and leadership style is well captured as well, which the book doesn’t do so well at.

Jordan covers the illegal workings of his stockbroking business, Stratton Oakmont, with great gusto and detail. It’s amazing he can recall so much information; his memory is an indicator of his higher-than-average intelligence.

He has little regard for the authorities, and from the quote below we can see why. Self-regulation rarely works well. The Wolf of Wall Street provides a fascinating and often unsettling insight into the world of stockbroking in the 1990s, when regulations were little more than window dressing. Jordan summarises the issue well in the following quote:

Just why the NASD had created a playing field that so clearly
fucked over the customer was something I’d thought about often,
and I’d come to the conclusion that it was because the NASD was
a self-regulatory agency, “owned” by the very brokerage firms them-
selves. (In fact, Stratton Oakmont was a member too.)

In essence, the NASD’s true goal was to only appear to be on
the side of the customer and to not actually be on the side of the
customer. And, in truth, they didn’t even try too hard to do that.
The effort was strictly cosmetic, just enough to avoid raising the
ire of the SEC, who they were compelled to answer to.

The Wolf of Wall Street, ed 2009, page99.

His corrupt attitude seems to spread, or maybe others realise they need to behave like Jordan to survive. One IPO (Initial Public Offering) Stratton Oakmont was Steve Madden Shoes. At first Steve was shying away from the materialistic nature of the brokers, but later on he cheated a long-time loyal employee of his share options showing that he had become greedy and unfair.

Nadine Superyacht

Jordan had so much money and it was just wasted on so many stupid wasteful things. One extreme example (apart from wrecking expensive helicopters and cars) was the demise of his super yacht Nadine.

To close a loose end with a deal he had to be at a location on the same day. Being on the yacht and with no other option available he coerced the captain into making a dangerous sea crossing. Not only did Jordan lose the yacht he also jeopardised his family, friends and employees. The incident was well portrayed in the movie.

Jordan and Nadine (The Duchess)

Jordan dearly loved “The Duchess”, his wife Nadine, but I think it was mainly the intense physical attraction he had for her. He did many drugs, which was caused by his incurable back pain, and this caused much extreme behaviour in the presence of their children. Jordan was heavily encouraged to go into rehabilitation, and this is where my interest in the book picked up.

It was an emotional and difficult period of his life, accepting his drug problem and trying to fix it. It reminded me of reading about Jackie O and how she coped with her demons. But Jordan didn’t last the full term, having bribed his way out after only a few weeks.

Returning home, complete with his drugs and bad behaviour Nadine had had enough. She left taking the children with her in a particularly bad exchange, as shown in the movie anyway.

Turning Point

Towards the end of the book Jordan is arrested and jailed for his many white-collar crimes. This low point of his life had a silver lining. Prison time helped stop his drug habit and he emerged clean and with a new career in public speaking. He never got back with Nadine, but thankfully he is involved with his children.

The Book

Unlike most biographies The Wolf of Wall Street has no photos or illustrations at all. The last ten pages or so are there to get the reader into enjoying the next chapter and to hopefully buy the next book of Jordan’s life. Forever the salesman!

Conclusion

A great read but it was a bit tedious at times. It’s an excellent insight into how rogue traders operate, and maybe on how to avoid being stung by them. Some photos would have made the book even better, but I guess there’s so many images of Jordan and his world that there’s no need, plus there is an excellent movie too.

Further Reading

Featured image: Photo by Jiarong Deng