Former Partner Reveals the Truth Behind The Wolf of Wall Street | Howie Gelfand
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How did Howie Gelfand’s early life and childhood shape his path to Wall Street?
In the movie, the character of Jonah Hill is made up of a composite of you and one other person.
Yeah. The speech was great that Scorsese put in there. You know, I'm not going. The show goes on. He's too much of a . to give a speech like that. We never threw a midget in the office. He eats one of the goldfish, so I ate the other goldfish. People didn't quit. People slid under the door. They snuck out. It was that insane of an environment. They only knew that that was the mild version. The truth here is much stranger than anything you could possibly make up. And it was really a relatively normal childhood until I got stabbed by a kid in the men's room with a lead pencil for my lunch money. And being the fat fuck that I was, that was the last thing I was giving up was my lunch money. So as soon as I came home, the overprotective mother said, that's it.
We're moving to the suburbs. And that was it for living in Queens. We moved out to Long Island. And that's where I got my first sniff of real wealth.
And your parents could afford that? Yeah,
it was a stretch. But at seven, eight years old, we moved out to Long Island. And I was definitely the poorest kid of the friends I had made. I had just moved out of an apartment house. And these guys were living in houses with limos out front and cabanas to pools. And it was a completely new world to me. But that's where the drive for success and the drive for money, that's where I first got the taste of it.
During high school and everything, you never got in trouble, anything like that?
No. I was always getting over on the system. Back in those days, in the dinosaur age, when I was in high school, the grades were kept on pieces of paper. And whenever the teacher used to leave to go to the bathroom, I would change my grades. That's where it kind of starts. Um, I had missed in my senior year of high school, a quarter of the days by cutting, uh, and a letter was sent out, but a physical letter in the mail. So what did I do? I intercepted the mail and my parents never saw it. And I got to graduate with my classmates. So I was always cutting corners. I was always cutting corners, um, and always trying to take the shortcut wherever I could find one. And I don't know how long I was in college.
Well, I can tell you that I lasted one test. That's the extent of my college career. Someone said to sit next to two particular types of people. I did. And at that time, they just started switching up tests. So one would get one. The next seat would get another test. And I'm cheating off the two to the left and the right of me. And I ended up getting a 30-something. And I immediately decided, that's it. I'm done with college. It's time to take over the world. Literally, that's what I said.
So what was the plan to take over the world? You need a good plan to take over the world.
Yeah, I didn't have one, but I kind of figured it would fall into place. I began working at my best friend's father's company. And it was a market research company doing these annoying telephone surveys. Before you know it, I'm running the place and I'm 20 years. uh something like that and then i get a phone call from a friend from high school who says uh howie have i got the job for you you were built for this come check it out and i went there and the guy i interviewed with um was a guy with the name of kenny green who was one of the original partners of strat no one's really heard of his name Because he sailed into the sunset. I think he sold his piece for $5 million to the fellow Matt McConaughey played, whose real name is Mark Hanna.
So I just interviewed with him. I knew him from high school. And he said, all right, you got the job. I said, we didn't go over anything. He didn't ask me anything. It doesn't matter. I know you from high school. You got the job. And the beginning of Stratton was all made up of guys from the Syosset Long Island area and Bayside Queens. That's where it really all came in from. And that's where the plan to take over the world started to form a little bit.
This is a stock brokerage company, but you're not a stock broker.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did Howie Gelfand’s early life and childhood shape his path to Wall Street?
0:00–8:37
2
What led Howie to join Stratton Oakmont and what was his first role there?
8:37–18:34
3
How did the cold‑calling process work and what sales tactics did the firm use?
18:34–29:26
4
What did becoming a partner involve and how did the firm manipulate stock prices?
29:26–37:48
5
How did Stratton Oakmont take companies public and what paperwork was required?
37:48–45:43
6
What caused Howie’s addiction and how did his life spiral into excess?
45:43–55:30
7
How did Howie achieve sobriety and what steps did he take toward recovery?
55:30–1:04:57
8
What lessons does Howie draw from his experience and how does he view the industry today?
1:04:57–1:11:52
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