On his first day of work at LF Rothschild, Jordan Belfort received some unexpected advice from Mark Hanna, a successful stockbroker.

According to Belfort, Hanna advised him to take frequent breaks to cope with his new, crappy job, during which he recommended jerking off. “And I also strongly recommend the use of drugs, especially cocaine,” Hanna added, “because that’ll make you [call clients] faster.”
A few hours later, while enjoying cocaine and martinis at lunch, Hanna told Belfort again, “I promise you that cocaine can definitely help you get through the day around here!”

Now famous as the protagonist of The Wolf of Wall Street, Belfort quickly became the epitome of the alcoholic, greedy, cocaine-snorting stockbroker of the 1970s and 1980s. Men like Belfort believed that cocaine powered them through endless hours of work and parties – as if the mantra “work hard, play hard” could be found in one miraculous powder. When Belfort owned his own firm, he responded to business challenges by ingesting cocaine. “My heart was beating faster than a rabbit’s… and I loved it,” he wrote of one such time. “My mind was in overdrive and I had everything under control.”