Seo-ah almost didn't go to high school.
Her grandfather said, "Seo-ah, you can study later. Right now, money comes first." He wasn't wrong. The debt wasn't shrinking, her father's back wasn't getting better, and her grandmother's knees were worsening. If Seo-ah quit school and worked full-time, she could earn one and a half million won a month.
Seo-ah thought about it for two days.
On the morning of the third day, Seo-ah said to her grandfather,
"I'll go to school."
"Seo-ah—"
"Without a high school diploma, there won't be anywhere I can go. I have to go farther."
Her grandfather looked at Seo-ah. The eyes of a sixteen-year-old were looking back at him. The light in those eyes still belonged to the child who had picked up a shard of glass at ten. Her grandfather said nothing more.
Seo-ah continued her newspaper delivery and convenience-store job while attending high school. She dozed during class. She slept during breaks. At lunchtime, she went to the library.
That was where Seo-ah's life changed.
At first, it was an accident.
The shelf beside Seo-ah's seat held books about economics. She had originally planned to read a novel. But one title caught her eye: The Attributes of Money. Seo-ah pulled the book off the shelf. She read the first page. Then the second. By the end of lunch, she had read thirty pages.
From that day on, Seo-ah went to the library every day at lunchtime.
She read books about economics. She read books about investing. She read books explaining the structure of the financial markets. Seo-ah didn't understand even half of them. But whenever she came across something she didn't understand, she marked it. If the next book explained it, she went back and read that section again. It took her a week to read a single book three times.
What Seo-ah understood was simple.
Money flows. Not from low places to high places, but toward wherever information exists. Whoever has the information has the money. Seo-ah's family had no information. Her mother only had information about gambling houses, and her father only had information about construction sites. That was why the money left their home.
Seo-ah decided to have information.
In her sophomore year of high school, a stock club was formed.
It wasn't exactly a club. A social studies teacher created a paper-trading club as an after-school activity. Eight students bought and sold stocks in a simulation using a fictional ten million won. Seo-ah signed up. The other students joined for fun. Seo-ah didn't.
During the first month, Seo-ah bought nothing.
While the other students bought Samsung Electronics, Kakao, and stocks they'd seen in the news, Seo-ah observed. Which stocks rose and which fell. Why they rose and why they fell. How much of a lag there was between the news and the stock price.
What she had learned at the convenience store worked here. Observing which products sold and observing which stocks rose used the same muscle. Seo-ah had already been using that muscle for three years.
In the second month, Seo-ah made her move.
She bought three small- and mid-cap stocks no one was paying attention to. The teacher asked, "Seo-ah, why these stocks?" Seo-ah answered, "These companies' quarterly earnings will come out next month. They'll be good." The teacher asked again, "How do you know?" Seo-ah said, "Their products have been selling well at the convenience store for three months straight."
Three months later, Seo-ah's virtual account had grown from ten million won to eighteen million. An 80 percent return. She ranked first out of the eight students. Her lead over second place was three times larger.
The teacher called Seo-ah aside.
"Seo-ah, have you ever thought about going into finance?"
"Yes."
"What about college?"
Seo-ah was silent for a moment. She couldn't afford college. Her grades weren't good enough for a scholarship, either. She had spent class time dozing off.
"I don't plan to go to college."
"What are you going to do instead?"
"I'm going to work at a securities firm."
The teacher looked at Seo-ah. Her eyes were serious. After saying nothing for a long while, the teacher spoke.
"Getting into a securities firm with only a high school diploma won't be easy."
"I know."
"Are you still going to do it?"
"Yes."
Seo-ah didn't smile. It wasn't something to smile about.
In the winter of her senior year, Seo-ah began preparing for employment as soon as she graduated.
She wrote résumés. She earned certifications. Securities Investment Advisor. Fund Investment Advisor. She studied on her own. During quiet periods at the convenience-store counter, she opened her textbooks. After finishing her early-morning delivery route, she came home and worked through practice problems. She slept four hours a night.
Seo-ah sent her résumé to twenty-one places. Nineteen never responded. One sent a rejection. One asked her to come in for an interview.
It was a small- and mid-sized securities firm. Not in Yeouido, but in Euljiro—a company nobody would recognize by name. Seo-ah went to the interview. Instead of her school uniform, she wore a white blouse her grandmother had bought her. The blouse was a little too big.
The interviewer asked,
"You have a high school diploma. Why didn't you go to college?"
"I couldn't afford it."
"What experience do you have in finance?"
"I ranked first in paper trading. An 80 percent return."
"Paper trading isn't the real thing."
"I know. That's why I came here to do the real thing."
The interviewer looked at Seo-ah. Eighteen years old. Two certifications listed on her résumé. No pedigree. No connections. No references.
"Why finance, of all things?"
Seo-ah thought for a moment. She couldn't tell the real reason. She couldn't say that money had destroyed her family and she had come to tame the monster.
"I want to become someone who can read the flow of money."
The interviewer nodded. The acceptance notice came two days later.
[Coaching Insight]
Opportunity isn't found in glamorous places. It's found where no one else is looking.
Seo-ah read the market from behind a convenience-store counter. She learned finance in a corner of the library. She built real-world instincts through paper trading. All of it happened in places other people didn't give a second glance.
Wherever you are now, there is something you can observe from that position. That observation will become your own market sense. Pedigree gives you a starting line. Observation gives you direction. You can't change your starting line, but you can change your direction—even right now.