Morris Mark can see beyond the horizon.

“I’ve found that a common denominator of successful people is a vision of what’s going to happen,” the president of Mark Asset Management, one of the city’s best-known financiers, said.

He’s too modest to claim any special success, of course, but Mr. Mark said that he has always possessed a willingness to take risks — risk-taking based not only on perceptions of value but also future changes in value.

Translation: Morris Mark, born in Flatbush, Brooklyn, knows how to make money.

Since he founded it 21 years ago, his company has achieved a net annual rate of return of 16% for investors. Once he senses the emerging profitability of specific companies, Mr. Mark believes in holding onto securities for the long run.

“I have a longer term orientation. We hold positions for years,” Mr. Mark said.

Thus, he saw the potential of Microsoft in 1987. He held on to its stock until 2000. He held on to Coca-Cola for eight years. Earlier, he’d sensed the potential of home building companies, and of companies in the broadcasting and cellular phone businesses.

“We use fundamental research to build value for our clients and ourselves,” Mr. Mark said, echoing comments he made seven years ago in Hedge Fund News. “We ask ourselves how the world looks, what its structure and direction is on a longer-term basis, and, in that context, what attractive equity investments can we make.”

He paused, and then said: “I suppose one way of putting it is that we get paid for reading the newspapers. I always ask, ‘What is the world going to be?'”

That question is posed not only out of professional necessity but also overwhelming curiosity.

“I was always very intellectually curious,” Mr. Mark said.

As the only child of a Brooklyn grocery store owner, Max Mark, and his wife, Frieda, he was fascinated with the world of commerce at an early age. His father exhorted him to work after school, and so the young Morris not only assisted in the family’s grocery store but also at a local florist’s shop, and at a toy store.

“My parents wanted me to have the opportunity of studying the world,” Mr. Mark said. “They firmly believed that one should do whatever one liked best.”

Although his parents privately hoped that their son would become a physician, Mr. Mark went to Harvard Law School after his graduation from Brooklyn College with honors in economics.

“Harvard was totally engaging. It wasn’t so much interested in the law as in getting a high-quality education,” Mr. Mark said.

What would follow law school?

“I considered a career in politics. I liked people, but I found myself increasingly interested in the implications of economics,” Mr. Mark said.

He practiced law for a few years before becoming a securities analyst with First Manhattan Company in 1968. Mr. Mark in 1974 joined the research department of Goldman Sachs, where for nearly a decade he was a senior executive specializing in real estate and financial services. He also was with the firm’s risk arbitrage department.

“I enjoyed the intellectual exercise of trying to figure out what something was worth,” Mr. Mark said. “I enjoyed applying the analytical discipline of law school to the business world.”

Mr. Mark had a way of corralling clients with his low-key manner, one that was nevertheless limned with enormous self-confidence.

“I found that I had certain abilities that enabled me to focus on seeking long-term gains through a fundamental research-based approach to stock investments in a wide range of businesses,” Mr. Mark said.

In 1985, he started Mark Partners and Mark Asset Management.The firm runs a domestic partnership, an offshore fund started in 1989, and separate accounts with total capital under management nearly $1 billion.

So what does he now see beyond the horizon?

“What impresses me is that since the fall of the Berlin Wall, more and more of the world wants to go to Disney World,” Mr. Mark said. “When even Russia and China are emphasizing the free enterprise system, you know that the positive values and ideals America stands for do matter globally.

“And that tells me that there’s a great opportunity in the years ahead for those who can dedicate themselves to finance and investment. I see more open trade — and I see the major powers compete economically, not politically as they used to. If we can deal with the ongoing security problem globally, the economic potential for free markets is enormous,” he said.

Mr. Mark frequently espouses his views on markets on radio and television. In addition to his prominence in the financial world, he’s a stalwart of the charity circuit.

But, Mr. Mark said, the influence of his early years in Brooklyn — his closeness to his parents — has meant that he’s never far from his wife, Susan, and children, Matthew and Tara. Matthew and his wife Cindy have two daughters, Alexa and Amanda whom Mr. Mark dotes on.

“Professional success is great to have, but one’s family is most important,” Mr. Mark said. “In my scheme of things, here’s how I see myself: husband, father, and then a business person. Within that context, I’m a very involved person.”

Animating that involvement is passion, he said.

“If you have passion, then two things happen. Your chances of accomplishment will be greater. And one way or another, you will enjoy yourself more,” Mr. Mark said.

So, he was asked again, what does he see beyond the horizon?

“More passion for what I do, and for the people I love,” Mr. Mark said.