LIVING IN POWDER: A CRITIQUE OF THE WOLF OF WALL STREETÂ
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I am living knee deep in powder with my eyes on beautiful nature shots. It is not the same white dust that attracted The Wolf Of Wall Street’s telescopic lens. As wildly separated  as Jordan Belfort and I are over the powder, we share commonalities such as beauty comes with a price. Belfort bamboozled his way from a sub-city childhood to successful suburban banker in less time then the experience of ivy-league college to a Master’s Degree in Business Administration. Not that formal education matters all that  much. It is what you learn on the job. Here, a lack of respect for what little regulatory rules govern the market got him caught.
Belfort is like my real father that way. Â His story unfolds in the New York Times Best Selling autobiography, Wolf of Wall Street and the Oscar Nominated movie starring Hollywood’s king lion, Leonard DiCaprio. Â Day by day.
Here’s that same backyard shot one day later. Â More snow with a twist of blue skies and bright sun. Â Snow costs money and money is generally in a uncommitted relationship with love. You either have it or you don’t haveboth or neither and between the two parts, four outcomes exist. Â The odds are one in four. They are always changing.
“No matter what happened to you in your past, you are not your past, you are the resources and the capabilities you glean from it. And that is the basis for all change.”― Jordan Belfort
Back to the powder, it is a cost of doing business. Martin Scorsese sets that up early in the Wolf Of Wall Street. Jordan Belfort is to Wall Street what a Wise Guy is to the City Street and that’s the attraction as Scorsese sees it. He gives you a lead character that despite the crookery your subconscious wants to emulate. I should know. I had a dad like this. Innately as a wolf knows to hunt, Belfort perfectly executes prays on middle class wage earners.  His wolf pack herded under the cash cow investment firm, Stratton Oakmont.  For the record, the rich identify Stratton as Vermont’s most pleasurable and exclusive ski resort. In powder, he lives a dream. Hookers in three classes ranging from Blue Chip to Pink Slip, fast cars, big houses and staffed yacht originally fashioned for Coco  Chanel.
Snow’s a crazy thing. It looks pure when it starts. When the temperature is just right, it drops in flakes and is light to the touch. When it mixes with weather that is too heavy, it absorbs too much moisture and starts to weight a ton. It is that defining moment that can also dictate sales. When it is cold, people spend less. It is a fact. Consumer’s have less motivation to arrive at a destination to shop. Online sales increase, retail destinations see less traffic. It is all about getting business in the door.
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If you have read my blog, you know by now that at some point I have to sell my business. I am in the business of high-end luxury one-of-a-kind goods. We transform legacy furniture and give everything individualized attention. If it has gone through Tiger Lily’s, it has my seal of approval. It means that in part of my day, I took the time to especially think of your needs, wants and lifestyle choices and am contributing my own personal part. When you buy from Tiger Lily’s, you buy the experience of a designer who thinks specifically of you. Shop Tigerlilys at http://www.tigerlilysgreenwich.com.
For what it is worth and at the time it was worth a lot, Jordan Belfort ran a lucrative and highly successful business. He lead by example.
“Successful people are 100% convinced that they are masters of their own destiny , they’re not creatures of circumstance, they create circumstance, if the circumstances around them suck they change them.”–Jordan Belfort
Leonardo DiCaprio, while not celebrated by the Oscars, dazzled with a performance fit for a king. It is no wonder that Belfort piped a piper of a pack of wolves. DiCaprio shows with a touch of his famous charism, knowledge of the punch line and chameleon capabilities that there is always a demand for people to be bought and sold. Belfort was taken down by the FBI, again much like my dad. I think that is why I gravitated to the story line. It is the type of movie where I saw myself. I loved my dad and Coleman, the officer who took down Belfort said  it probably is the same for them to us.
 “In a single word, it’s attention, a craving for attention,” Coleman says.
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