“We are not the mistakes of our past.”

The former boiler room king, Jordan Belfort, is ready for his closeup as The Wolf of Wall Street heads into theaters this December.

I loved his book and I had met most of the old Stratton Oakmont guys fifteen years ago during my early days in the Long Island brokerage scene. I’ve always said that if Jordan had used his powers and charisma for good rather than evil, he’d have been a billionaire. Guys I knew who had worked with him and gotten into trouble because of him still worshipped at the altar of Jordan years after the fact. To this day there are still thousands of brokers using the scripts and selling methods he had devised, albeit not to sling garbage house stocks (let’s hope).

In a new profile at BusinessWeek, Jordan Belfort lets us in on where he is now…

Jordan Belfort, aka the Wolf of Wall Street, hates it when people describe him as a criminal. “‘Convicted stock swindler’—it’s like it hurts my heart,” he says, practically shuddering. “I know it was true, but it’s not who I am. I say to my son, I say it to everybody who I try to mentor: We are not the mistakes of our past. We’re the resources and capabilities that we glean from our past. And it’s so true.”

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Jordan Belfort, the Real Wolf of Wall Street (BusinessWeek)