Why passionate entrepreneurs fail: The missing success factor

Research reveals most startups fail not from lack of passion, but from missing the right mix of persistence and time-based strategies

Picture this scenario: two entrepreneurs launch tech startups in the same incubator, with similar funding and market opportunities. Both are deeply passionate about their ventures. One builds a thriving business; the other closes within eighteen months. What made the difference?

This puzzle haunts the entrepreneurial landscape. Despite the popular narrative that passion drives success, the reality proves far more complex. Walk through any co-working space and you'll meet dozens of passionate founders. Yet statistics tell a sobering story. Data indicates that around 10% of startups fail within the first year, while a further 70% of new businesses fail between the second and fifth year, and up to 90% of startups fail to make it past a decade. More than two-thirds of them never deliver a positive return to investors.

New research from universities in Australia and Vietnam offers breakthrough insights into this entrepreneurial paradox. Most will fail not from lack of enthusiasm, but from missing crucial elements that transform passion into achievement. The findings challenge conventional wisdom about what separates successful entrepreneurs from those who, despite having a harmonious passion for their startup, still cannot be successful in their careers.

The implications reach beyond individual founders. In an era where startups drive innovation and economic growth, understanding why passionate entrepreneurs fail has become critical for investors, mentors, and the entrepreneurs themselves.

Published in the Australasian Marketing Journal, Towards a Roadmap for Entrepreneurs' Career Achievement: The Role of Harmonious Passion, Entrepreneurial Persistence and Time-Based Resources, was co-authored by Associate Professor Liem Viet Ngo in the School of Marketing at UNSW Business School, Doan Duc Minh and colleagues Drs La Anh Duc and Thi Nguyet Que Nguyen from the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City, and Dr Mai Nguyen from Griffith University.

This research was inspired by a persistent challenge centred around “a mystery why some entrepreneurs, despite having a harmonious passion for their startup, still cannot be successful in their careers,” A/Prof. Ngo stated. Initially grounded in theory, the study revealed some surprising insights. Notably, harmonious passion alone is not sufficient, nor entrepreneurial persistence or time-based resources in isolation. Rather, A/Prof. Ngo said it is a combination of these that enables career achievement.

Understanding harmonious passion in business

The research reveals that success requires a specific combination of factors, and missing even one can doom an otherwise promising venture. The answer lies partly in understanding different types of entrepreneurial passion. Unlike obsessive passion that controls and overwhelms, harmonious passion represents something more sustainable. The research defines it as "a psychological feeling experienced when individuals autonomously select the activities they enjoy, feel good about and have a richer experience."

Think of harmonious passion as the difference between being driven by joy versus being driven by compulsion. Entrepreneurs with harmonious passion choose their work freely and find genuine satisfaction in solving problems and creating innovative products. Their business activities energise them and contribute to their overall happiness, rather than consuming their entire identity.

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Consider how Sara Blakely built Spanx. Her passion for solving a personal problem (creating comfortable shapewear) remained balanced with other life priorities. She maintained her day job selling fax machines while developing her product, demonstrating harmonious rather than obsessive passion. This balance allowed her to persist through years of rejection from manufacturers and retailers.

“We carefully examined the above generally accepted success implications of harmonious passion and delved deeper into this relationship.” A/Prof. Ngo added. “We revealed that harmonious passion is not inherently beneficial and its impact on career achievement is in fact conditional – requiring the presence of entrepreneurial persistence as an essential personal resource that translates harmonious passion into success.”

The critical role of persistence

Their investigation employed a robust methodology, collecting longitudinal survey data from 178 entrepreneurs in Vietnam across two measurement waves, followed by an online experiment with 201 participants in the United Kingdom. This dual approach allowed researchers to establish both correlation and causation in their findings. The team also used qualitative comparative analysis to examine complex configurations of factors leading to success.

The research found that passion transforms into achievement through a crucial intermediary: persistence. The study describes "entrepreneurial persistence is exhibited by an entrepreneur's ongoing, upbeat maintenance of entrepreneurial zeal and relentlessly renewed energetic effort in a new business endeavour in the face of conflicting demands or alluring alternatives."

This persistence acts as the bridge between feeling passionate about a venture and actually achieving career success. Without it, even the most harmoniously passionate entrepreneurs may abandon their efforts when faced with inevitable challenges. “Entrepreneurial persistence is truly an energiser that keeps fuelling the transformation of harmonious passion into career achievement,” A/Prof. Ngo added.

Time as a strategic resource

Perhaps most intriguingly, the research identified time-based resources as a critical factor that amplifies the effect of persistence on success. This refers not just to hours invested, but to the quality of engagement with the business environment.

The findings suggest that "entrepreneurs with high time-based resources may make decisions more quickly or efficiently." When entrepreneurs combine persistence with thoughtful time investment, they develop better problem-solving capabilities and make more informed decisions.

Learn more: Can a founder's personality predict start-up success?

The contrast between successful and failed ventures often lies here. Entrepreneurs who rush from task to task without reflection may work hard but achieve little. Those who invest time in strategic thinking while maintaining operational persistence create sustainable advantages. Think of how Jeff Bezos famously blocks out time for unstructured thinking, crediting these sessions with Amazon's most innovative strategies.

Time is a non-renewable resource and a critical booster in the persistence-achievement linkage. The quality of temporal experiences that enterprising individuals encounter along their entrepreneurial journey becomes essential, A/Prof. Ngo explained.

Breaking the failure cycle

The research reveals why many passionate entrepreneurs fail: they lack either the persistence to push through challenges or the time-based resources to make their persistence effective. Success requires all three elements working in concert – passion provides motivation, persistence maintains effort through difficulties, and time-based resources ensure that effort translates into smart decisions and genuine progress.

This configuration approach explains why some entrepreneurs with seemingly equal passion achieve vastly different outcomes. Those who succeed have learned to channel their harmonious passion into sustained effort while investing quality time in strategic thinking and decision-making.

The study's experimental findings confirmed that these relationships hold across different cultural contexts, from Vietnamese startup founders to British entrepreneurs. This universal pattern suggests fundamental truths about how entrepreneurial success actually works, regardless of geography or industry.

Practical pathways to success

For entrepreneurs seeking to improve their odds of success, this research offers clear guidance. First, cultivate harmonious rather than obsessive passion by maintaining perspective and finding joy in the entrepreneurial journey itself. Second, develop systems and mindsets that support persistence even when facing setbacks or attractive alternatives. Third, invest time not just in working harder, but in thoughtful engagement with your business challenges.

The research emphasises that entrepreneurs must examine themselves carefully before starting ventures. Those who combine genuine passion with unwavering persistence and strategic time investment create the conditions for sustained success. Understanding this trinity of factors transforms entrepreneurship from a game of chance into a more predictable path to achievement.