Fund Lessons From Carl Icahn

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Carl Icahn has made a name for himself as both a notorious corporate raider and a self-proclaimed advocate for shareholder rights. During his 40-plus years on Wall Street, he has used his massive wealth and bold personality to take on a number of large U.S. companies and earn a comfortable profit doing so.

While his influence has been felt in everything from airlines to Internet firms, Icahn has most recently set his sights on the troubled lender, CIT (CIT Quote). It will be interesting to see if, with his trademark bold persona and relentless pressure, he can enforce changes that will turn this firm around.

Icahn was born in 1936 to a middle-class family in Queens, NY. His father was a lawyer who aspired to be an opera singer and his mother was a school teacher. After attending public school through grade 12, Icahn was accepted into Princeton University. There, he studied philosophy.

Throughout Icahn's early childhood, his mother dreamt of one day seeing her son as a doctor. In order to please her, after Princeton he attended the New York University School of Medicine. His tenure at this institution, however, was short lived. After only two years, he dropped out and joined the Army.

After leaving the Army, Icahn's uncle got him his first Wall Street job working for Dreyfus and Co. With Dreyfus, he built up his knowledge of the financial world and, in 1968, started his own brokerage firm, Icahn & Co.