Lessons From A Life On Wall Street
With his newspaper tucked under his arm, Seth Glickenhaus reported for work today just has he has for nearly three quarters of a century, CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason reports.
"Good morning, all," he said to his coworkers.
At 94, he is still the chief investment officer of Glickenhaus and Co.
"I'm glad we're having an up day for a change," he said.
And while this financial crisis is often compared to the Gret Depression, Glickenhaus actually worked on Wall Street during tat period.
"I started my first company in 1938," he said. "The pessimism was very thick at that point. People were nervous as hell."
He graduated Harvard with honors in economics in 1934, but what really brought the Depression home to him was when his father, an insurance dealer, had to lay off one of his two employees.
"And at that point, my father, for the first time in my life, that I'd ever seen him started crying. He was so upset," Glickenhaus said.
So, what's the secret to surviving a recession like this?
"Well-chosen stocks," Glickenhaus said.
And he has made a fortune by choosing well. As Business Week reported in 1959, after making an $8 million killing, he quit the street to go to medical school. But he couldn't stay away.
"It just didn't work out and I came back to Wall Street and started this again," Glickenhaus said.
In the decade after the 1987 crash, his company was the top-ranked money manager in the country, with gains of more than 500 percent. Now he sees opportunity again.
"I'm still not comfortable with all the volatility. But do I feel there's going to be great money made in the years - and how!" he said.
At 94, he has no intention of retiring.
"I love the challenge and I love the stress involved. And I think that's what kept me alive. And has kept me at the point where I'm now approaching middle age," he said.
After a lifetime on the street, Seth Glickenhaus has leaned it never pays to panic.
