It's no secret that Wall Street is not well-regarded on Main Street today. And surely, the blockbuster movie The Wolf of Wall Street (which I just saw and highly recommend) won't do anything to help the reputation of the finance industry. The marketing behind the movie has been brilliant -- with flashy cars, marching bands, tossed little people and drugs, it's a combination of so many topics people love to watch and hear about. Add naked girls, lots of curse words, Martin Scorcese and Leonardo Dicaprio, and it's no surprise that the movie has received a ton of hype and has made many millions of dollars.
While the story is based upon reality, the truth is that there's very little about this movie which reflects the reality of Wall Street. The trading firm of Long Island couldn't be further from the real Wall Street -- and this movie was about con artists. The characters were very watchable, but they were repulsive people with very few appealing qualities. Unlike Gordon Gekko bellowing: "Greed Is Good," very few young men will fantasize about simply ripping people off, as the characters throughout this movie seemed to relish.
While the movie was enjoyable, and the marketing great, the reality is that making it from nothing is hard-work, and there are no short cuts. As CEO of 5WPR, a firm I started in one room and today employs over 110 people, I know first-hand that most self-made successful entrepreneurs succeed because they work very hard and take risks. Their movies wouldn't be that interesting -- as they simply get to the office early, leave the office late and work very hard.
Lloyd Blankfein, the Chairman of Goldman Sachs, wouldn't make as interesting a character on screen as Jordan Belfort did. Blankfein's story is real-life American hard work paying off -- and his real-life story is admirable. Blankfein was raised in housing projects in the Bronx -- his father was a clerk with the U.S. Postal Service (after he lost his job driving a bakery truck), and his mom was a receptionist. As a boy, Blankfein worked as a concession vendor at Yankee Stadium. He attended Harvard University on scholarship, and had to work in the cafeteria to pay bills.
Today, Blankfein is one of the most influential people in the finance world by virtue of his hard-work. Thousands of people are employed, pay taxes, give to charity and do great things. He is Gala Chairman of the Rockefeller family's Asia Society in New York, and serves on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization seeking to alleviate poverty in New York.
Making money and being successful is one of the great things about America -- and there are plenty who do it honestly via hard-work. It is natural that movies hype debauchery -- but it's not something to admire. There's a scene in The Wolf of Wall Street, where Belfort's wife is discussing the Forbes Magazine feature on him and says: "There is no such thing as bad publicity." Indeed, there is such thing as bad publicity.
While the silver screen wouldn't make as much money celebrating good, old fashioned hard-working success stories, Americans shouldn't confuse good movies with good business.
Ronn Torossian is a NY based Public Relations Executive, and author.
Follow Ronn Torossian on Twitter: http://ift.tt/1aLw5yA
via Entertainment - The Huffington Post
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