---

from Outstanding Investor Digest's December 31, 1996 Edition

---

CENTURY MANAGEMENT'S
ARNOLD VAN DEN BERG

As a 13-year-old in an East Los Angeles neighborhood, Arnold Van Den Berg was still physically underdeveloped from three years in an orphanage in Nazi-occupied Holland. To overcome his lack of strength, he took up rope climbing with such commitment that he set a record in the event - climbing 20 feet in 3.5 seconds - at his school that lasted until the event was discontinued about 15 years later.
While still a senior in high school, he even placed seventh in the national collegiate competition.

As a 31-year-old salesman for a local securities firm specializing in mutual funds, Van Den Berg became upset with how those funds had performed in 1969 and 1970. To understand why, he began to research security analysis and became an avid reader of Ben Graham and a student of security analysis.
He soon decided he wanted to manage money. But lacking the background or the credentials to enter the field, he was stymied - until someone suggested that he apply the same commitment that he'd applied to rope climbing nearly 20 years before. Then and there, he made the commitment that however long it took, he'd begin his own advisory firm. And apply that same commitment, he did - converting his small studio apartment into a virtual research office - moving everything out save his desk, his books and his bed.

One of his first discretionary clients, Robert Phillips - who joined him in mid-1974 - also loaned him the $2,500 that he used to start his firm. Incidentally, that gentleman is still a client (and, Van Den Berg adds, a good friend) today. He recounts how he was so grateful at the time that he said to him, "I'm going to make you a million dollars." - although the comment was made in jest and the idea was so farfetched at that time that they both had to laugh.
Today, having earned a compound return of 18.82% per year after all fees and expenses for 22+ years on his investment, he says he's actually now made him more than $2 million. And, he tells us, the (audited) performance of his account is comparable to that of other equity accounts during the same period.

We'd like to credit (and thank) our late contributor and friend, Jerry Carret - son of living legend, Phil Carret - for introducing Van Den Berg to us by introducing us to Sam Hale prior to his affiliation with Century Management.

Incidentally, in preparing this feature he displayed a p which we imagine was similar to the passion he displayed in his pursuit of excellence in rope climbing and money management. Only limitations of time and space (you probably didn't realize that we had those) kept this feature from being longer and more wide-ranging.
The following material was excerpted from a series of extended interviews between November 21st and right up to press time. We hope you find his thinking process and the ideas discussed as intriguing as we do.

©Copyright 1996-2010 Outstanding Investor Digest, Inc. All rights reserved.
295 Greenwich St., Box 282, New York, NY 10007 (212) 925-3885