 Jordan Belford back in the spotlight with a new book Way of the Wolf, Jordan obviously the movie The Wolf of Wall Street was based off of another one of your books from ten years ago. What's one thing we don't know about Jordan Belford? Wow one thing, one of the problems that means everyone knows my whole life from the movie. I think what people don't know about me is that you know that the movie sort of depicts that the character I was back in the day right so it was over the top character you know just driven and you know you know worried to cut corners and I think that people will don't don't realize now is that I'm very much the opposite in business you know I'm almost extra careful than pretty much anyone I know in terms of when it comes to you know making sure they don't cut corners or maintaining my integrity and my ethics and and going out there and using the the abilities I have and the talents and what I teach people in persuasion with the straight line system which is what this new book is about to succeed but doing it the right way and and not just focusing on making money for the sake of making money but I gotta tell you I mean when you talk about your advice I mean what do you say to those who are skeptical I mean if I follow this advice mean where is it gonna lead me well I think you should read the book and decide for yourself or just read the prologue it's free and you know get a sense of what the book is about my I've been teaching this around the world for you know the last ten years and I just went to my Facebook wall look what independent people right it's a really powerful system that's changed people's lives you know in all industries not just in sales but matter what you do and I think that one of the mistakes people make is they they look at sales as being just for sales people and I think that is just completely a mistake that you know persuasion influence the ability to sell is for everybody whether you're a mom trying to influence your children to make their beds do their homework you're a teacher trying to influence students on the value of education a pastor a lawyer it doesn't matter what you do you're always trying to share your ideas your vision for the future with other people in a way that connects them and it's a skill that many people don't have and that they need now for people who don't know Jordan obviously you serve time in prison for financial crimes what would you say is possible now I mean do you think you could recreate the scheme that you did all those years ago today I mean it's a 99% of what I did was legitimate it was a regular firm where everything was running the right way and then I was you know and then one little defined area I was flipping units and then that turned into what you call a pump and dump right it still happens to this day people use the internet more now in like chat rooms they talk stocks up it's like that but you know I think those things will always be around you know in some way exactly the same way I don't know if it would be exactly the same way because the internet is such a big part of everything right now but and a lot of people lost money based on you know what you did so you're now making a lot of money with your speaking career your book writing career is that money going back to the way I pay back a lot of money yeah sure I work with the government I actually pay back money every single month and it's been great and I paid back a lot and I continue to pay back and how much have you paid back by 1819 million already and I continue to pay back and I'll pay back more how much more all of it really my goal so I won't buy books so this is more than just the return of Jordan Belfort well I think it's always been my intent was to sort of go out there and you know live in a certain way not in the way that I live back in the day which was just about how much money can I make for myself was really to empower other people and also make amends for the past and and live a good life at the same time and I don't think those are mutually exclusive and I think I've done pretty well with that and I continue to strive to do even better in the future let me ask you about Wall Street culture of course which we saw in the movie The Wolf of Wall Street how has it changed now do you think I mean you must talk to Wall Street people all the time I think that you know for many years I was it was frustrating to me that you know I I got in trouble and I should have got in trouble what I did but I was always like well it wasn't just news Wall Street had a sort of a culture that was somewhat bankrupt and I think that kind of proved out in 2008 when we saw what was going on all over yet no one went to jail based on what happened in 2008 that's not my problem you know I can't I'm happy for they did in them you know say I feel that thought they should have but for me I look I deserve to go to jail I did and that's and that that's a new chapter of my life now right so I think that things have gotten better though since then I really do I think that in what way I think that that the GFC was a shock to the system for people global financial crisis yeah yeah and I think that they're what I think it was like wholesale betrayal of the public trust that occurred and every level from big firms down on down and I I think a lesson was learned and I think that firms have gotten a lot more vigilant about about making sure that the systems in place don't incentivize bad behavior a lot of that was that that people were getting paid the matter what the outcome so whether your clients made money or lost money the brokers would make money either way and the firms and bonuses were given out based on you think that's happening less right it's happened less yeah yeah really yeah although you look at Equifax I mean that guy's made well over a hundred million dollars and look what happened to that firm so there's certainly cases of it is always going it's always going to be there that's human nature but I think that it was sort of like a high point which it was having when I was there wasn't the only one doing it myself and but at 2008 I think that was it sort of like that the the sort of like the the belcher all came out like and everyone looks in a whoa I think things have gotten better I really don't Wall Street culture has always sort of been under the microscope but right now Silicon Valley is really in the crosshairs over you know gender discrimination sexual harassment there any similarities between what we read about in terms of what's going on in Silicon Valley versus your time on Wall Street I think whatever people are making a lot of money there's going to be the sort of behaviors that you see playing out where young people make a lot of money very quickly and then they don't know what quite what to do with it how to attach value to that money so it's not spending and and doing things that that seems like socially out of the norm right and I think that you know like everything else Wall Street had to grow up a bit and I think the people in Silicon Valley have to grow up in a sense of the you know it's easy to make money but there's another side to the equation that's the ethics the integrity and I learned the hard way that you know without that side of the equation your success isn't lasting it doesn't really feel that good anyway and and I think that and again you know I think it's very easy to focus on the bad players right there's always a lot of great players to think people that are doing it right and even in the worst times even in the GFC which probably was the global financial crisis which is the worst still many many people weren't you know doing things wrong so so what are you doing now with your money besides paying back people that lost money because of your crimes are you investing in the markets I do but I live I you know for me it's really I'm very different than I used to be now mold the things that makes sense at 25 don't make sense at 55 right so I'm not out there buying fast cars and yachts and trying to you must have a nice car I'm a nice car but I don't really drive anywhere to the tennis court and you don't have a plane or anything like that a plane you know but but or certainly a yacht you know I'm sure never get again but I think for me it's not I don't use money as my sole indicator of how well I'm doing all right I have many other indicators as well in terms of you know how many people are attending my events how many people are being helped by what I'm gonna this book I wrote the way the wolf the straight line system is a very powerful system they can help people so I to me success is just about also broadening the scope people that I interact with and stuff it's not just dollars and cents now so many people made a ton of money this year investing in Bitcoin what do you think of Bitcoin we had former JP or we had current JP Morgan CEO Jamie Diamond come out and say it's a fraud do you think Bitcoin is a fraud yes what why is that my thing is right I mean I think that is that that I don't think it's a great model I'm not saying crypto currencies there there won't be one I think there will be one but I think it has to have some backing by some central governments out there because the biggest problem I see with Bitcoin why I would never buy it is that they could steal them from you like to hack into your phone or something I know I know people that have lost all their money like that and it's and and also it's just you know the idea that it's basically listen I mean a currency all this air I guess when you think about it right but this specifically is being backed by nothing other than a program that creates artificial scarcity it seems kind of bizarre to me that it could really ever be sustainable forever without the listen again you know things go artificially up very very high and they go artificially down right the whole reason the Federal Reserve was introduced into the economy was just trying to try to help me cushion those blows and panics right there won't be a time when everyone is freaking out about Bitcoin and dumps it in God knows what's going to happen or like with Mt. Gox when that went back and all of a sudden they found out that wait a second my bitcoins aren't safe it was in the bank and the bank is gone there's all these bumps in the road and I also think that sooner or later a central bank or or consortium is going to introduce their own cryptocurrency and that is what's going to take hold yeah the Fed has been pretty quiet about Bitcoin we haven't really heard much from the Chinese central bank has not been quiet and they're indicating that they're they're probably going to outlaw or if they haven't already said that in so many words but and I'm not saying that you shouldn't shouldn't buy Bitcoin but I'm saying is I personally myself would be very very careful about investing a lot of money in something that could vanish very quickly you mentioned the hacking risk with Bitcoin you know the government came after you pretty hard so I have to ask you what was your reaction when you heard the FCC was hacked which just happened not too long ago you know I don't wish that anybody should get hacked it's a terrible thing I never had that much respect for the SEC and a lot more respect to the US Attorney's office that they were a lot more diligent and a lot smarter and a lot more capable what they did so you know I have no negative comments to make about that but I think it's ironic right also before we let you go billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen getting back into the business any advice for him be careful I listen I think that you know happy for the guy didn't get in trouble you know he you know nothing really happened when everyone thought something was going to happen but I'm sure that you know you know whatever he was doing anything that that that was perceived as being wrong I'm sure I'll be very very careful to make sure he doesn't go trade into that area again so my good luck to the guy I hope he does great all right Jordan Belfort thank you so much my pleasure