Silver Linings: Finding Wealth, Wisdom, and Redemption on the Hardest Road of All – a story of endurance, resilience, and hope.
Vivid stories and practical lessons for facing adversity
An inside look at global finance and Southeast Asian culture
Timeless wisdom on balance, responsibility, and renewal
Silver Linings is a powerful journey from $10 million in inherited debt to global financial leadership—offering timeless lessons in resilience, integrity, and hope for anyone facing life’s hardest challenges.
Silver Linings: Finding Wealth, Wisdom, and Redemption on the Hardest Road of All is a story of endurance, resilience, and hope.
At twenty-seven, Silver Kung inherited his family’s crushing debt of $10 million after political upheaval devastated his father’s business in Taiwan. What followed was a long struggle marked by low-paying jobs, garnished wages, and years of sacrifice. Yet from these trials came the skills, insights, and determination that ultimately allowed him to transform hardship into opportunity and success.
Silver Linings is more than a financial journey—it is a testament to optimism, integrity, and perseverance in the face of adversity. Along the way, Kung encountered challenges ranging from brushes with corruption to cultural and professional trials across Asia and Europe. Each experience reinforced the values that guided him: honesty over compromise, family over ambition, and the pursuit of progress without losing sight of one’s humanity.
Through vivid stories and practical lessons, readers will gain not only an inside look at global finance and Southeast Asian culture but also timeless wisdom on balance, responsibility, and renewal.
At its heart, this book offers a universal message: hardship touches every life, but so do joy and redemption. Whatever form adversity takes—financial, physical, or emotional—there is always a way forward. Silver Linings is an invitation to rise after the fall, to see possibility in pain, and to discover that life, even on the hardest road, can be rich with beauty, meaning, and hope.
Dr. Silver Kung is a global investment leader, entrepreneur, and sustainability advocate with more than two decades of experience in capital markets and asset management. As the Founder and Chairman of Siegfried Capital Group and Siegfried Asset Management Limited, he has built a career at the forefront of hedge funds, renewable energy private equity, and trade finance innovation. Today, he serves as Executive Director of a Luxembourg CSSF-regulated SICAV fund and multiple AIF and Cayman funds, guiding institutional investors across the globe through complex, high-impact financial strategies.
Born and raised in Taiwan and educated in the United States and China, Silver holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, an M.S. in Finance, and a Ph.D. in Economics. His early ventures included founding Hyperion Capital Management in 2011, where he led solar investments across Italy and Spain. In 2015, he launched Siegfried Capital to champion the emerging asset class of supply chain finance, now the firm’s singular focus.
Silver’s leadership is deeply rooted in responsible investing. A member of UBS’s Global Philanthropy Climate Change Collective, he has positioned Siegfried Capital as a signatory to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI).
Beyond finance, Silver is a devoted husband to Doriya and proud father to daughters Celine and Irene. He’s a passionate traveler, cinephile, and history enthusiast—forever curious and inspired by the world’s cultural richness. Whether exploring markets or medieval ruins, Silver Kung brings a relentless spirit of discovery and global perspective to everything he does.