So you are young and you have “0” money. You have energy, time, and probably determination to make it Big but you feel down because of your starting point “zero money”.
Do you think that you are starting from the bottom? No buddy, the bottom is probably something like “zero money”, a useless college degree, hundred of thousands of debt to pay, no friend, no family, obesity, and no place to live.
Measuring wealth shares some similarities with measuring temperature. The similarities between Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Wealth are the zero. In these cases, the zero is just an arbitrary number where the water freezes or where you have “0” money. The negative zone in the wealth case is to be in debt (and all your assets cannot cover that debt).
When you grow your wealth, you expand also your credibility and you expand your options to borrow. Of course 99% of the time you shouldn’t use your option to borrow (to purchase the unnecessary stuff) but you should keep those borrowing options open. Basically, you grow your wealth both ways as net positive possessions and as not used possibilities to borrow. This phenomenon partly explains why some bankrupt millionaires were able to recover multiple times from big failures. And,Yes unrealized borrowing opportunities are not recorded in their books(accounting).
Where temperature analogy departure from wealth is that you can use both positive and negative forces simultaneously (money + debt).
This “arbitrary zero” concept can be used in managing our emotional wealth too. Let’s say that your ultimate goal in life is to increase your happiness (what a dumb goal that is?). If you are in the state of “zero emotions” or apathy, you can increase your happiness by using both positive and negative emotions in a presumably controlled way.
Mixing positive and negative energies is not a strait-forward thing to do but rather a dangerous activity where in most cases you go on a downhill spiral. The right proportions of positive and negative energies are dynamically changing and practically unknown. One thing is certain, no one can climb any high peak walking only upwards.
Conclusions:
We should strive to gain from volatility by accepting "the zero" as arbitrary number in the positive-negative domains. There zero in Not an empty space... but rather a state.
In domains where there are no negative amounts like time, life, health and etc. the zero is the final frontier, you hit it and it is over. There zero is empty space.
Adjust accordingly…
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay