Only a small portion of entrepreneurs who would like to be their own bosses eventually succeed and maintain their own businesses after the initial startup phase. Building upon self-determination theory, we develop a conceptual model that examines the relationships among harmonious passion, entrepreneurial persistence, time-based resources and career achievement of entrepreneurs. In Study 1, we collected longitudinal survey data using two measurement waves and found that harmonious passion affects career achievement directly and indirectly via entrepreneurial persistence. Time-based resources were found to moderate the impact of entrepreneurial persistence on career achievement. The fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis results confirmed that personal resources (harmonious passion, persistence and time-based resources) are needed as prerequisites for career achievement. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment and confirmed the findings in Study 1. Our research extends the existing theory and suggests implications for entrepreneurs.