2026年7月，韩国股市剧烈震荡。新闻里说，有许多股民因为加了杠杆，赔光了账户里的钱；更倒霉的，不但自己的钱没了，还倒欠券商一笔。
赔钱已经够难受，赔完以后还欠钱，便更难受。那情形很像一个人掉进水里，本来只想湿一双鞋，最后却连帽子都漂走了。
后来，一些韩国股民走上街头，集会、游行，向政府讨说法。他们嘴上讨的是说法，心里盼的，大概还是账户里的钱能回来。
可是，钱一旦在市场里赔掉了，通常不会因为喊几句口号就自己走回来。钱没有腿，来的时候却慢，走的时候反而快。
投资也好，经营公司也好，有一件事必须经常提醒自己：
数字不仅有正数，还有负数。
背着别人家的钱跑步
股民如果不加杠杆，遇到市场大跌，固然心疼，却未必撑不下去。股票跌了，只要没有被迫卖出，手里的股票还在，日子也还可以往下过。
可是加了两倍、三倍杠杆，事情就不一样了。那不是一个人在走路，而是背着别人家的钱跑步。顺风的时候，跑得确实快；一旦迎面来了一阵大风，自己还没决定停下，券商已经替他停下了。
市场下跌百分之二十、百分之三十，账户可能便会触发强制平仓。昨天还在计算能赚多少，今天已经没有资格继续计算了。
公司经营中的负数
创业开公司，也是同样的道理。
公司刚开张的时候，如果一切顺利，客户来了，订单多了，银行账户上的数字也一天比一天好看，创始人很容易觉得：自己大概是找到了发财的窍门。
于是租更大的办公室，招更多的员工，添更多的设备，把摊子铺得又大又漂亮。业务规模扩大了，人员规模扩大了，固定开支也跟着扩大了。每个月睁开眼睛，房租、工资、保险、税款和供应商账单便排着队来敲门，一个比一个准时。
顺利的时候，这些都不算问题；不顺的时候，它们全是问题。
一旦客户减少、项目停顿，或者某笔应收款迟迟收不回来，公司的资金链可能在很短的时间里断掉。供应商上门追债，员工提起诉讼，房东催要租金，银行也不会因为创始人最近睡不好，就同意少收一点利息。
到了这一步，创始人面对的往往不只是“清零”。
清零虽然难看，毕竟只是回到了零。真正可怕的是，零的下面还有很长的一段路：卖房、卖地、背上债务，被列入限制高消费名单，飞机不能坐，高铁不能坐，出差只能坐绿皮火车。别人几个小时到了，他要在车上晃一夜。那一夜很长，正好够他把当初扩张公司的决定，从头到尾想上好几遍。
第一次见到负十分
我很小的时候，就知道数字还有负数。当然，那时我不知道什么叫杠杆，也不知道什么叫资金链。我只是参加了一场知识竞赛。
那是在初中三年级。我代表班级参加比赛，比赛采用抢答的方式。主持人念完题目，参赛者便按抢答器。谁先按到，谁回答。答对了，加十分；答错了，不加分；如果抢到了却答不出来，还要倒扣十分。
那是我第一次见到抢答器。
现在想来，抢答器这东西很有意思。它看起来只是一个按钮，实际上既通向十分，也通向负十分。按下去以前，人人都觉得自己知道答案；按下去以后，才发现自己知道得没有那么多。
比赛的具体过程，我已经记不清了。我不记得主持人问了什么，也不记得自己当时究竟答了什么。只记得最后，我代表的班级得了负十分。
不是零分，是负十分。
零分已经很难看，负十分则像是参加完比赛以后，还欠了比赛十分。
我接受不了这个分数。班主任接受不了，同学们也接受不了。可我又不知道该向谁解释。向主持人解释没有用，向抢答器解释更没有用。抢答器只是亮了一下，它不认识我，也不在乎我难不难过。
至于那段时间是怎么过去的，我已经忘了。人有时候就是这样，以为永远过不去的事情，后来也就过去了。只是事情虽然过去了，有些东西却留了下来。
“数字不仅有正数，还有负数”这个概念，大概就是从那时起，刻进了我的脑子里。
勇气与风险意识
后来求学、工作、创业，再到出国生活，我当然也会鼓起勇气往前走。没有勇气，许多事情根本做不成；可是只有勇气，也可能把事情做坏。
勇气告诉我，可以按下抢答器；风险意识则提醒我，按下去以前，最好先想清楚自己是不是真的知道答案。
回头看，那场只得了负十分的知识竞赛，或许是我人生中很早的一次风险教育。
它让我明白：人在计算自己能得到多少以前，也要计算自己最多能失去多少；在想着胜利的时候，也要给失败留一条退路。
因为生活这本账，从来不只在零的右边记账。
零的左边，也有很大的地方。
English Translation
Numbers Can Be Negative, Too
In July 2026, South Korea's stock market went through severe turbulence. News reports said that many investors who had used leverage lost everything in their accounts. The unluckiest lost not only their own money but ended up owing money to their brokers.
Losing money is painful enough. Losing it all and still owing more is worse. It is like falling into the water expecting only to get your shoes wet, only to watch your hat float away as well.
Later, some South Korean investors took to the streets, holding rallies and marches and demanding answers from the government. They asked for an explanation, but what they probably hoped for was the return of the money in their accounts.
But once money is lost in the market, it does not usually walk back merely because a few slogans have been shouted. Money has no legs, yet it arrives slowly and leaves with remarkable speed.
Whether investing or running a company, there is one thing we must remind ourselves of often:
Numbers can be negative, too.
Running with Someone Else's Money on Your Back
If investors do not use leverage, a sharp market decline will certainly hurt, but it may not destroy them. As long as they are not forced to sell, they still own their shares, and life can go on.
With two or three times leverage, however, everything changes. You are no longer walking on your own; you are running with someone else's money on your back. With the wind behind you, you move quickly. But when a strong wind blows in your face, your broker may stop you before you have decided to stop yourself.
A market decline of twenty or thirty percent may trigger forced liquidation. Yesterday, you were calculating how much you might earn. Today, you no longer have the right to continue the calculation.
Negative Numbers in Business
Starting and running a company works much the same way.
When a new company begins well—customers arrive, orders increase, and the number in the bank account looks better each day—the founder may easily conclude that he has discovered the secret to getting rich.
So he rents a larger office, hires more employees, buys more equipment, and spreads the operation out until it looks grand and impressive. Revenue grows, head count grows, and fixed expenses grow with them. Each morning, rent, payroll, insurance, taxes, and supplier invoices line up to knock on the door, each one more punctual than the last.
When business is good, none of these seems like a problem. When business turns bad, every one of them becomes a problem.
If customers disappear, projects stall, or a major receivable remains unpaid, the company's cash flow can break in a very short time. Suppliers demand payment, employees may sue, the landlord asks for rent, and the bank will not reduce its interest merely because the founder has not been sleeping well.
At that point, the founder may face far more than an account returning to zero.
Zero looks bad, but at least it is only zero. The truly frightening part is the long road below it: selling a home or land, carrying debt, and being placed on a restricted-consumption list that may bar someone from flying or taking high-speed rail. A trip that takes others only a few hours may require an overnight journey on a slow train. It is a long night—long enough to reconsider, from beginning to end, the decisions that once expanded the company.
The First Time I Saw Minus Ten
I learned at a very young age that numbers could be negative. At the time, I knew nothing about leverage or cash flow. I had simply entered a school knowledge competition.
I was in the third year of middle school and represented my class. The competition used buzzers. After the host finished reading a question, contestants pressed their buttons. Whoever buzzed first had the right to answer. A correct answer earned ten points. A wrong answer earned nothing. But if you buzzed and could not answer, ten points were deducted.
It was the first time I had ever seen a buzzer.
Looking back, a buzzer is an interesting thing. It appears to be only a button, but in reality it leads both to plus ten and minus ten. Before pressing it, everyone believes they know the answer. After pressing it, they discover how much less they know than they imagined.
I no longer remember the details of the competition. I do not remember the questions or exactly what I answered. I remember only the final result: the class I represented finished with minus ten points.
Not zero. Minus ten.
Zero was embarrassing enough. Minus ten felt as though I had finished the competition still owing it ten points.
I could not accept the score. My homeroom teacher could not accept it, and neither could my classmates. Yet I did not know to whom I could explain myself. Explaining to the host was useless. Explaining to the buzzer was even more useless. The buzzer had merely lit up. It did not know me, and it did not care whether I was upset.
I have forgotten how I got through that period. People are sometimes like this: what once seemed impossible to survive eventually passes. The event passed, but something remained.
The idea that numbers can be negative as well as positive was probably engraved in my mind at that time.
Courage and Risk Awareness
Later, through school, work, entrepreneurship, and eventually life abroad, I continued to summon the courage to move forward. Without courage, many things can never be accomplished. But courage alone can also ruin them.
Courage tells me that I can press the buzzer. Risk awareness reminds me that, before I press it, I should make sure I truly know the answer.
Looking back, that knowledge competition in which I scored minus ten may have been one of my earliest lessons in risk.
It taught me that before calculating how much I might gain, I must also calculate how much I can afford to lose; while thinking about victory, I must leave myself a way to survive defeat.
Because the ledger of life is never kept only to the right of zero.
There is a great deal of space to the left of zero, too.