“My name is Jordan Belfort. The year I turned 26, I made 49 million dollars, which really pissed me off because it was three shy of a million a week.” — The Wolf of Wall Street, an instant classic.
Are you trying to become the Wolf of Wall Street? Are you looking to promote something? Are you afraid of promoting yourself? Are you tired of scams? Are you nervous in general?
This article is all about promoting yourself and getting the most out of life. We’re going to cover many interesting angles.
I had an interesting weekend. I went out Thursday night after training, then went to my cousin’s grade 12 economics class to give a hour-long speech with no notes, then I saw The Wolf of Wall Street and finally on Sunday, I had my first pro wrestling singles match (I ended up wrestling twice).
What could we learn from a weekend with a movie, a presentation, and a wrestling match?
“When you’re sailing a boat built for a Bond villain you’ve got to play the part.” – Belfort
I saw the bit about financial freedom in the movie and damn did it get me thinking. For some, it’s a complete scam to even think about financial freedom. For others, it’s the goal. Their goal is to pay off debt, retire early, save up money, or just be happy in life.
You see, financial freedom, depends on your situation. It could mean quitting your job, paying off debt, or just being able to afford an annual trip.
From the outside, most goals seem impossible.
When I spoke to my cousin’s economics class, the students were really into the idea of starting a business and graduating debt-free. The only problem is that most challenging goals just sound impossible. So we do nothing. We create excuses and do absolutely nothing.
That’s why I always promote the notion of taking a step, any step, in the right direction!
And finally, risks are what keeps us young. Are you taking any risks? I shared with these students how I invested in a condo when I was young and how I have taken many other goals. They seemed very interested with this since most parents only suggest the safe route (go to school, get a job, and then get married).
What about sales? How do you promote something?
“Sell me this pen.”
Belfort tests his buddies in the movie with this. If you can sell, you should be able to sell anything. So he whips out a pen!
I experienced a problem with sales at my recent pro wrestling show. We were all given tickets to sell. The guys that sold the most tickets would be given better matches since they were bringing in the audience.
I struggled because I had to promote something I wasn’t 100% about my skills and I wasn’t going to receive the money from the sales.
It took me a while to build up the confidence to sell on this blog. I had to ensure that my products/services were flawless. Now I had to sell tickets to a show where I wasn’t confident (I just started training a few months earlier).
Long story-short: I ended up selling 10 tickets. While some classmates sold as many as 45 tickets.
Now I wish I had sold 100 tickets because not only was my match a ton of fun, but I got to wrestle twice because I really worked the crowd (they hated me).
What’s the key lesson here?
You need to build up your confidence in life first before you can even try to sell something. You need to be confident in yourself and what you’re selling.
An eye-opener on the shady people in sales is the following exchange from the movie:
“Mark Hanna: The name of the game, move the money from your client’s pocket into your pocket.
Jordan Belfort: But if you can make your clients money at the same time it’s advantageous to everyone, correct?
Mark Hanna: No.”
Being in sales is only shady when you make it out to be!
As for The Wolf of Wall Street movie, I say that you watch it for the women alone. The motivational speeches are awesome too.
How do you promote yourself and make money in this world without becoming a world famous con artist?
It’s simple: do NOT rip anybody off! Duh!
For example, I believe that financial freedom is totally possible. Anyone reading this can break free of debt, a crappy job, or just a miserable situation overall. You don’t have to be stuck forever. You just need to set realistic goals for yourself and those you want to sell to.
Never flaunt your money.
We usually don’t trust most people in sales because they throw out vague numbers and pretend to be something that they clearly are not. It doesn’t help you to let the whole world know how much money you have, especially when you have don’t have what you claim to have.
Watch your level of greed.
It’s good to be ambitious, but it’s easy to cross that line.
Greed is dangerous. It really is an addiction where you always want more and more and more. It transcends to other areas of your life. Being greedy for money will soon lead to greed for constant lust.
“Naomi Lapaglia: Aren’t you married?
Jordan Belfort: Yeah, but married people can’t have friends?
Naomi Lapaglia: We’re not gonna be friends.”
I’ll stop lecturing because I’ve been accused of being greedy many times.
I’ll end off with this for today…
Always try to improve your situation without hurting anybody else in the process. However, never take no for an answer. Do whatever it takes to reach your goals. Life’s too short to go at half-speed or to not do whatever it takes to get what you want.
Good points. My only small thing would be that I think people can be financially independent without taking much risk. For example, when I worked in that cubicle 3 years ago and my husband was still a teacher, we were still on track for financial independence by age 50. I only went fully self-employed when I was making almost as much online, and hubby went self-employed after I was making more by myself than we were making combined before. Even now, we have multiple streams of income (online business, freelancing for others, rental income, and reffing). Risk tolerance doesn’t affect success in my opinion. Throwing yourself at your goals 100% is huge though. I was killing myself with 100+ hour work weeks for more than a year to avoid most risk…there is a give and take…
You’re right about that Crystal. You don’t have to go all in with risks. You should however take the risk of starting which comes with the risk of failing. This is where many will give up!