The Wolf Of Wall Street has become one of the most controversial films of the year. This rollercoaster of a film by Martin Scorsese tells the story of crooked stockbroker Jordan Belfort (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and his life of excess.

By the time Jordan Belfort was as mid-20s, he was worth an estimated $100 million (imagine!).

Yet… he was also a serious drug addict whose life was spiraling out of control.

The Wolf of Wall Street is primarily a cautionary tale. It shows what happens when the desire for entrepreneurial success is not supported by concern for the greater good of the customers.

Some have argued that the film glorifies the crimes that Belfort committed, but I would suggest that few people would want to emulate Jordan Belfort’s life – twice divorced, deeply in debt, a convicted felon, and pariah for much of society.

After all, one of the real tragedies of his story is that if Belfort had better directed his entrepreneurial drive, he could have created real, lasting value for both himself and his customers.

Below are some of the things we can learn from a master of sales like Jordan Belfort – and what we need to do avoid his fate!

Identify Your Ideal Customer and Specialize

Jordan Belfort’s success was built on one big idea…

It demonstrates the importance of specialization – his company didn’t just sell stocks; it sold penny stocks.

But Belfort realized that past penny stocks had been sold only to people with lower incomes – and wanted to create his own blue ocean in a market all to himself.

He realized there was a much larger (and more lucrative) market for offering a product to people with money.

He shifted his business to focusing on the wealthiest 1% of society, and dedicated himself to becoming the master of his niche.

By identifying his ideal customer (and not trying to appeal to everyone), he made a fortune.

Create A System

Boiler rooms failed to market to wealthy people because the salespeople didn’t know how to talk to this type of customer.

The wealthy were presumed to be too financially savvy to fall for the kind of pitches that were usually used…

So “The Wolf of Wall Street” came up with a system to train his salespeople to follow a specific script that would work with these higher end customers. This system was tested, tweaked, and improved upon.

Using this script, he could train and empower anyone to sell to his ideal customers.

The Power of Persistence

One character trait that Belfort didn’t lack was persistence.

Before he entered the stock market industry, he had a meat delivery service. He sold meat, but expanded too quickly, ran up debts, and eventually bankrupted the company. Many people would have given up on their entrepreneurial ambitions, but as Belfort said:

“People tend to give up. If you have persistence, you will come out ahead of most people. More importantly, you will live. When you do something, you might fail. But that’s not because you’re a failure. Because you have not learned enough. Do it differently each time. One day, you will do it right. Failure is your friend.”

Provide A Solution To A Pain

In marketing, there is a concept known as the “starving crowd.” In other words, it’s much easier to sell to someone who is desperate for a solution. As Belfort puts it:

“At a certain point, one of the questions I always ask is, ‘What is your greatest headache right now?'”

The more that you can understand your customers pain, the easier you will find it to sell your products and services that solve their problems.

READ THIS: How To Not End Up Like The Wolf of Wall Street!

The truly sad part about Jordan Belfort is that he had talent and drive, but it was misdirected. As a result, Belfort was given a 4-year prison sentence and ordered to pay a $110 million fine (OUCH!).

Even worse were the consequences for those around him, including the friends, family, and customers that trusted him.

Jordan Belfort made one key mistake: he was not concerned with providing the greatest benefit or advantage to his customer.

He is an example of someone who was concerned only with the amount of money he made, not how customers benefited from his services.

The more self-serving you become,
the less people want to help you.

The Wolf Of Wall Street is a fun piece of Hollywood entertainment.

But for entrepreneurs, it has an even more important lesson of how badly things can go when we forget that the purpose of business is to provide value for our customers.

Remember, people don’t buy things – they buy results.

In your corner,

Charlie