"If there's a secret to Mr. Weschler's success, he said it is that he reads. A lot. A person who has been in his office noted that he has stacks of 10-K filings, or company annual reports, all over his office, and he reads them himself. He shares the office with an associate and an assistant.

'Ted will spend months quietly in the corner trying to understand a particular issue, then he emerges like a quiet reporter of what he's learned,' says Patrick Grace, a private investor in New York and son of Peter Grace, the late chief executive of W.R. Grace, the conglomerate where Mr. Weschler first learned how to analyze potential acquisitions. 'Ted could be living in Tahiti doing what he's doing, he's so mentally disciplined.'"