It was the inspirational story that brought people to tears, but for David Lee, the chief executive of DWL Financial Services, it was much more than that.

After reading Daniel Hu's story, thanking his parents who worked as cleaners and lived below the poverty line to help him achieve an outstanding HSC result, Mr Lee felt compelled to reach out to Mr Hu.

Mr Hu's story resonated, as he experienced a similar struggle when he came to Australia from Malaysia as a young man many years ago.

"I grew up in a very poor Chinese Malaysian family in Malaysia and came to Australia when I was 27 speaking no English at all. I now own a successful financial planning company but, like Daniel's parents, I did anything I could to get by in the early days," Mr Lee said.