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company chief executives, other senior managers, press, and other investment managers to people on his staff.

Cooperman, a chatty, energetic man of 57, was continually on the move during our interview. I was exhausted just watching him. You could tell he thoroughly enjoyed what he was doing; this explained why he spent 90 hours a week working. The smile on his face and the twinkle in his eye were constant.

On a typical day, Cooperman arrives in his office at about 7A.M., after a one-and-a-quarter hour commute from his Short Hills, New Jersey, home. On three out of five days he meets with his trainer, with whom he goes on a treadmill and does some stretching exercises. At 8:45A.M., he has his team meeting. At the meeting, the analysts talk about things they've learned about the companies they are tracking. Views are exchanged on the economy. During the day, Cooperman usually speaks to about five companies. He works until about 6 P.M. seldom arriving home before 8 P.M. "I eat dinner in 15 minutes and log back onto the computer for the evening to check out the portfolio, markets in Asia, and late-breaking news. I'm an information hog; I want to know what is going on."

His motivation is not money. When he retired from Goldman Sachs, he was already a wealthy man. He is motivated by doing a job well and making a total commitment. What gives him a lot of satisfaction is seeing something that no one else does.

Cooperman says he will keep doing it as long as he is healthy, has no performance problem, and likes what he does. He has no plans to retire. At the start of the interview, Cooperman let it be known that he was a regular guy. "I went to P.S. 75, Morris High School, then Hunter College of the City University of New York, where I met and married my wife of 37 years." Perhaps Cooperman felt he had something to prove, and he has done so.

Right after Columbia Business School, he went to Goldman Sachs where he stayed for 24 years; for 15 of those he was a partner. He spent 22 years in the investment research department and for 15 years was partner-in-charge, cochairman of the investment policy committee, and chairman of the stock selection committee. He built the research department from near-scratch, from a 35-person department to 200 people. In 1989, he became chairman and chief executive officer of