A beginner's guide to being a rabble-rousing, corporate-raiding, CEO's-worst-nightmare hedge fund manager

Imagine walking into a boardroom, introducing yourself to the chairman - perhaps opening with an insult or a threat to make things very uncomfortable for the entire board - and then saying "time to do things my way."

Oh, but while you're doing this, you're neither a controlling shareholder, founder, or even an executive at the business.

You're an activist - that breed of investor that doesn't sit quietly while things go their way, or don't.

Activist investors usually build up stakes in companies they think are undervalued and then demand changes that they think will work in their favor.

They call it "maximizing shareholder value," but this is another way of telling a company to do its darnedest to make investors wealthier: fire employees, break off businesses, sell the entire thing to a rival, or just spend more money buying back shares.

If you're any good as an activist, you'll become very wealthy. Hedge fund investors will flock to you. And when you're really good, you'll be able to just manage your own money, meaning you're not accountable to anyone. And the media will obsess over your every utterance.

Sound good? Well, to help any burgeoning activists out there, we've put together a primer to become a successful activist. If you're willing to accept the time sink, cost, and possibility of massive, public failure, then scroll down and find out what it takes to be a rabble-rousing, nightmare-inducing, shareholder-rallying activist investor.