Quotes from Jordan Belfort (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Motivational speaker & sales coach Jordan Belfort is the real Wolf of Wall Street. His life as owner of penny stock brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont was made into a movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese. Here are some of Jordan Belfort's unforgettable quotes for success.

“The only thing standing between you and your goal is the bullshit story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it.” 

“When you live your life by poor standards, you inflict damage on everyone who crosses your path, especially those you love.” 

“Act as if! Act as if you're a wealthy man, rich already, and then you'll surely become rich. Act as if you have unmatched confidence and then people will surely have confidence in you. Act as if you have unmatched experience and then people will follow your advice. And act as if you are already a tremendous success, and as sure as I stand here today - you will become successful.” 

“Winners use words that say ‘must’ and ‘will’.”

“If you give people a good enough ‘why’, they will always figure out the ‘how’.”

“No matter what happened to you in your past, you are not your past, you are the resources and the capabilities you glean from it. And that is the basis for all change.” 

“The easiest way to make money is -create something of such value that everybody wants and go out and give and create value, the money comes automatically.”

“If you want to be rich, never give up. People tend to give up. If you have persistence, you will come out ahead of most people. More importantly, you will learn. When you do something, you might fail. But that’s not because you’re a failure. It’s because you have not learnt enough. Do it differently each time. One day, you will do it right. Failure is your friend.” 

Attending to the Little Things

Stephen Covey writes about the importance of little acts of kindness in his book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Here is the excerpt from the book:

The little kindness and courtesies are so important. Small discourtesies, little unkindnesses, little forms of disrespect make large withdrawals. In relationships, the little things are the big things.

I remember an evening I spent with two of my sons some years ago. It was an organized father and son outing, complete with gymnastics, wrestling matches, hot dogs, orangeade, and a movie -- the works.

In the middle of the movie, Sean, who was then four years old, fell asleep in his seat. His older brother, Stephen, who was six, stayed awake, and we watched the rest of the movie together. When it was over, I picked Sean up in my arms, carried him out to the car and laid him in the back seat. It was very cold that night, so I took off my coat and gently arranged it over and around him. 

When we arrived home, I quickly carried Sear in and tucked him into bed. After Stephen put on his "jammies' and brushed his teeth, I lay next to him to talk about the night out together. 

"How'd you like it, Stephen?"
"Fine," he answered.
"Did you have fun?"
"Yes."
"What did you like most?"
"I don't know. The trampoline , I guess."
"That was quite a thing, wasn't it -- doing those somersaults and tricks in the air like that?"

There wasn't much response on his part. I found myself making conversation. I wondered why Stephen wouldn't open up more. He usually did when exciting things happened. I was a little disappointed. I sensed something was wrong; he had been so quiet on the way home and getting ready for bed.

Suddenly Stephen turned over on his side, facing the wall. I wondered why and lifted myself up just enough to see his eyes welling up with tears.

"What's wrong, honey? What is it?"

He turned back, and I could sense he was feeling some embarrassment for the tears and his quivering lips and chin.

"Daddy, if I were cold, would you put your coat around me, too?"

Of all the events of that special night out together, the most important was a little act of kindness -- a momentary, unconscious showing of love to his little brother.

What a powerful, personal lesson that experience was to me then and is even now. People are very tender, very sensitive inside. I don't believe age or experience makes much difference. Inside, even within the most toughened  and calloused exteriors, are the tender feelings and emotions of the heart.

High Achievers and "Rushing Sickness"

Dan Kennedy, in his book No Rules: 21 Giant Lies About Success How to Make it Happen, discusses how all high achievers live their life fast:

If you want to insist that "haste makes waste", you'll be forced to acknowledge that achievers accept or ignore the waste and make haste anyway. In the book Profiles of Power and Success, Dr. Gene Landrum notes that the superachievers studied all were afflicted with a kind of "rushing sickness." They ate, talked, drove, even slept fast. Napoleon graduated from college in half the normal time. Walt Disney went on periods of prolonged, fast-paced working binges broken up by periods of complete collapse, and slept on the couch at his office nearly half his adult life because he resented the time wasted commuting. At age nineteen, Picasso was turning out a new painting each day. He was warned by art dealers that he would ruin the market for his work. (They were wrong).

Impatience and intolerance for anything impeding their progress characterized every supersuccessful man and woman featured in this extraordinary book, which I recommend highly. As I think about it, the most successful people I've ever worked with -- and there have been plenty of them -- have exhibited both these characteristics in great abundance.

Those who are constantly harping at you to slow down and take it easy probably do not understand what makes you tick, what gives you fulfillment, in life, or what it is necessary to succeed in the environment you operate in. While those with "the rushing sickness" do admittedly pay a price for their achievements, this is also their key to high achievement. Further, success-oriented urgency does not necessarily have to create waste or require sacrifice of quality. Most people work slower than need be.

Always Be Positive

Art Williams, the former owner of AL Williams Insurance (Primerica), believes that positive thinking is the key to success in business, education, anything you can mention. The following excerpt is from his book All You Can Do Is All You Can Do:

It's not for sale. You don't inherit it. Nobody else can give it to you. You can't go to college and get it. But it is the chief weapon in your arsenal for combating society's failure messages and your own internal enemy. 

It's a positive winning attitude. 

I believe you can do 99 percent of the things right but not possess a positive winning attitude, and you will fail.

Folks, the difference between being great and being average and ordinary is such a thin thing it's almost too scary to talk about. A positive winning attitude is one of those "little edges" that mean the difference between winning and losing. 

I believe that if you possess a winning attitude and learn to make it work for you in your business and your life, you'll win. I'll go even further. I believe a positive winning attitude is the difference between being good and being great.