They run an investment firm managing US$6 billion (S$8 billion) for major pension funds, asset managers and sovereign wealth funds, including Temasek Holdings, and their funds have been ranked among the best-performing hedge funds in the world.

But up close and personal, Mr Keith Tan and Mr Danny Yong, both 45, the founders of Dymon Asia, are still two university buddies who can barely believe their luck.

Anyone else would be happy to crow about how their own genius and hard work helped them build one of Singapore’s most successful home-grown finance firms.

Mr Tan and Mr Yong keep bringing up the importance of luck and gratitude in their success story.

Take Mr Tan, whose parents were vegetable sellers and who grew up playing at the Geylang Serai wet market.

He recently participated in a survey on entrepreneurship. One of the questions asked him to rank, on a scale of one to 10, what kind of cards he was dealt at birth.

Read the full article here.

By Yasmine Yahya

Source: The Straits Times © Singapore Press Holdings Limited. Permission required for reproduction.