By: Ellen Cans
In a recent TikTok video gone viral, the real-life “Wolf of Wall Street,” Jordan Belfort, told a young man to quit his job and “think bigger”.
As reported by the NY Post, Belfort, who spent 22 months in jail for money laundering and securities fraud, has been doling out life couching advice on his TikTok account. In a recent clip, the now 59-year-old former stockbroker, advised a 25-year old man to quit his full-time job and work for himself. “All right — best advice to this person working a 9-to-5 job, making $60K a year, 25: Quit this job. Get a better job. You gotta think bigger,” said Belfort, in the video, which has been viewed more than 2 million times. “You’re never gonna get rich, you’re never gonna get ahead in life and have financial security working for someone else on a salary and punching a clock.”
He adds that, the notion that working a good job for decades will lead to Social Security, a pension and financial comfort are “old thoughts implanted in our heads from the traditional school system”. Belfort says that, he believes that in this day and age, the reality is that following such a career path, he will “die with no money”, or with just enough “to pay for your diapers, barely, while you’re in a nursing home.” He advises user @jakecorey, to rather work for himself in one of several hyped, get-rich-quick trades. “You have to develop a side hustle to start. At least get a second source of income, whether that be real estate, investing in stocks, cryptocurrency, something,” Belfort says.
Belfort was depicted by Leonardo DiCaprio in the 2013 film adaptation of his 2007 biography. The story recounts his days of white collar crime and financial fraud. In 1999, Belfort had pled guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running a boiler room as part of a penny-stock scam. His prison time was cut as part of an agreement under which he gave testimony against numerous partners and aides in his fraud scheme.
Comments varied to the TikTok post, which was entitled, ‘The best advice I can give’. Many commenters said it would be sheepish to take job coaching from a man who so drastically sullied his own reputation and ended up in jail. Still, others applauded the blunt approach, and agreed that success won’t come from relying on a day to day salary.
