(CBS) If you have money in the stock market, chances are Carl Icahn has helped improve your bottom line through what's called the "Icahn lift." That's the upward bounce that typically happens when he starts buying up a stock. He is such a surefire moneymaker that investment managers, like the ones who run your mutual fund or 401k, often follow his lead.

But these are dark times for investors. The Dow Jones has slid over 1,000 points since the first of the year. Icahn has said, "The market is falling off a precipice…the free ride is over, the punch bowl is dry!"

So, you'd think he's tearing his hair out, but as correspondent Lesley Stahl found out, he's not: Icahn tends to thrive when the markets go down. He pounces when everyone else is losing their shirts.

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The day Stahl visited Icahn Enterprises the stock market was swinging wildly, at one point dropping 300 points.

Icahn, who works in a skyscraper suite overlooking New York's Central Park, called it a "tough day."

"I think I lost today," he told Stahl.

Actually, he lost big: well over $150 million that one afternoon. But when Stahl spoke with him a few days later, Icahn told her, "No big deal!"

He lives by the mogul's credo: never let 'em see you sweat. "I was buying that day," he said. "I mean, seriously, I was very happy about that."

"You looked like you were…frazzled and…," Stahl pointed out.

"Well, I'm always frazzled. I mean, look at now, I combed my hair. But I'm always got so much going on. And I enjoy that," he said.

One of his biggest holdings, Motorola, plunged 19 percent that day. But Icahn, the ultimate risk taker, was gobbling up more shares in the company.

Motorola is a perfect example of how Icahn operates. First he chooses a company he thinks is poorly run and trading below value. Two years ago he started buying up millions of shares of Motorola; now he controls over a billion dollars' worth of stock.

As he usually does, he's been making demands in order to jolt up the sagging stock price. His first demand was to dump the CEO; that happened in December. Then, he demanded a break up the company.

His goal is always the same: to reap a hefty a profit for himself.

He's been successful, say Wall Streeters, because he's intimidating and relentless.

"With me I think generally they take the attitude: 'Try to make peace, try to work with him, because he’s not going away,'" Icahn explained.

"Is it 'cause you have so much money?" Stahl asked.

"Well, and they know my nature," he replied.

Asked what his nature is, Icahn told Stahl, "That I'm not going away. That I'm an obsessive guy. That I'm comin' here, I've done it, and there's no way I'm leaving till they do something."

Produced By Karen Sughrue
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