Way of the Wolf

August 7, 2017
If your need for arrogant bluster is unfulfilled by TV news pundits, by all means take a dive into this thin extension of the Wolf of Wall Street brand. Belfort (Catching the Wolf of Wall Street), the subject of the 2014 movie, is back with a guide to “build massive wealth,” preferably without the jail time for securities fraud and money laundering that followed his own rise to greatness. Belfort sees his greatest gift as the ability to sell anything to anyone, accompanied by the ability to teach anyone to become a superstar salesperson. In 1988, he took over the small, unassuming brokerage firm of Stratton Oakmont and “cracked the code for human influence and developed that seemingly magical system for training salespeople.” For this book, he has fine-tuned his original approach, the “Straight Line System,” with a nod to business ethics. He covers acquiring charisma, grooming prospects, and writing a sales-pitch script. Familiar business-manual advice—sound confident, cultivate a firm handshake, and be persistent—is well represented, but few besides Belfort would have the chutzpah to claim that these tactics will “within days” deliver “massive wealth and success to anyone.” The book may benefit from proximity to a popular film, but wealth seekers are unlikely to benefit from Belfort’s hollow pronouncements.