This is the story of a man who started a brokerage firm. Driven by greed and corruption, his business, family, and life as a whole went downhill. Jordan Belfort is a shy young adult from Queens, New York, who lives with a girlfriend he is madly in love with.
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The book begins by describing his first day as a junior stockbroker on Wall Street. Jordan is surrounded by power players who live to be rich, get richer or die trying. Jordan has the opportunity to watch and learn firsthand the rules of the "game". Little did he know he was stepping into a world where drugs, alcohol, corruption and prostitution were daily occurrences.
Fast forward a few years later, Jordan, who has been dreaming of truly becoming a successful stockbroker in his own right, has left Wall Street and has decided to start his own firm: Stratton Oakmont (SO) in Long Island, New York. Not only is he making millions of dollars daily and illegally at SO, but his firm and wild stockbrokers are the pure definition of debauchery; parties and sexual acts performed with hookers in the office, illegal pills and cocaine - to name but a few - can be found in abundance.
This is an outrageous story of a man who had it all, i.e., money, status, prestige, a wife and children, yet who could not help wanting more. A man whose inexcusable greed led him to rob millions of innocent Americans so as to enable him to continue in this life of abuse, excesses, perversions and self-destructing behavior. Until he got caught.
Best part of story, including ending:
This is a true story and there are absolutely no limitations; nor in the depictions of numerous acts performed, nor in Jordan's fall into an emotional abyss following his desperate attempts at further materializing his prestige.
Best scene in story:
When he, and the members of the crew, pushed the helicopter off of the top deck of his yacht to create landing space for rescuers. This is a perfect example of a day in the atypical life of Jordan Belfort at this time.
Opinion about the main character:
I dislike: Jordan Belfort was, at this period in time, a fundamentally selfish individual who had no consideration for others.
I like: His honesty; despite the fact that he was a very troubled man.
