APA Citation
Gompers, P., Lerner, J., Scharfstein, D., & Kovner, A. (2010). Performance persistence in entrepreneurship and venture capital. *Journal of Financial Economics*, 96(1), 18-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2009.11.001
Summary
This Harvard Business School research examines how past success in entrepreneurship and venture capital predicts future performance. The study reveals that successful entrepreneurs who start new ventures after previous wins show persistent advantages, while those with failed ventures face ongoing disadvantages. The research demonstrates how early patterns of success or failure create self-reinforcing cycles that affect access to resources, networks, and opportunities, establishing lasting trajectories in business careers.
Why This Matters for Survivors
This research illuminates how narcissistic abuse creates persistent disadvantage patterns that mirror failed entrepreneurship cycles. Survivors often face ongoing challenges rebuilding confidence, accessing resources, and trusting their judgment after abuse. Understanding these persistence patterns validates the long recovery journey while highlighting how small wins can create positive momentum toward healing and empowerment.
What This Research Establishes
Persistent advantage patterns: Entrepreneurs who succeed early tend to continue succeeding, gaining easier access to funding, networks, and opportunities that compound their advantages over time.
Persistent disadvantage cycles: Those who experience initial failures face ongoing barriers to resources and support, creating self-reinforcing cycles that make future success more difficult to achieve.
Performance prediction reliability: Past performance serves as a strong predictor of future outcomes in entrepreneurial ventures, with success and failure patterns showing remarkable consistency across multiple ventures.
Resource access amplification: Success creates expanding access to capital, mentorship, and strategic partnerships, while failure restricts these same resources, magnifying the impact of early outcomes on long-term trajectories.
Why This Matters for Survivors
This research validates what many survivors instinctively know but struggle to articulate: the effects of narcissistic abuse create persistent disadvantage patterns that mirror the challenges faced by entrepreneurs after failed ventures. Just as failed business founders find it harder to secure funding and support for future endeavors, survivors often discover that abuse has systematically undermined their access to confidence, relationships, and opportunities.
The study’s findings about performance persistence help explain why recovery feels so difficult and takes so long. Narcissistic abusers deliberately create failure patterns by sabotaging their victims’ successes, criticizing achievements, and isolating them from supportive networks. These manufactured disadvantages don’t disappear immediately after leaving the relationship—they persist and continue affecting how survivors approach new opportunities and relationships.
Understanding these cycles offers hope because the research also demonstrates that persistence works in both directions. While negative patterns can perpetuate disadvantage, positive patterns can create upward spirals of success and confidence. Each small win in recovery—whether it’s setting a boundary, completing therapy homework, or rebuilding a friendship—contributes to breaking the disadvantage cycle.
The key insight for survivors is that expecting immediate transformation sets unrealistic standards. Instead, focusing on creating small, consistent successes allows positive momentum to build gradually, just as successful entrepreneurs leverage early wins to access greater opportunities over time.
Clinical Implications
Therapists working with narcissistic abuse survivors can use this research framework to help clients understand why recovery feels so challenging and unpredictable. The concept of performance persistence provides a scientific basis for normalizing the lengthy recovery process and reducing self-blame when progress feels slow or setbacks occur.
Treatment planning should incorporate the research’s emphasis on creating early wins to establish positive momentum. Rather than tackling major trauma processing immediately, clinicians might focus first on building small successes in daily functioning, boundary setting, or self-care practices that begin to reverse disadvantage cycles.
The study’s findings about resource access suggest that connecting survivors to appropriate support networks, educational opportunities, and therapeutic resources early in treatment can accelerate recovery by providing the “funding” equivalent for personal rebuilding efforts. Isolation maintenance perpetuates disadvantage patterns established during abuse.
Finally, this research supports longer-term therapeutic relationships that allow for patience with setbacks while consistently reinforcing positive patterns. Just as successful entrepreneurs require multiple funding rounds, survivors benefit from sustained support that helps them navigate the inevitable ups and downs of breaking persistent disadvantage cycles.
How This Research Is Used in the Book
Chapter 12 uses this performance persistence framework to help readers understand why healing from narcissistic abuse requires patience and strategic thinking rather than expecting immediate transformation. The business research provides an accessible metaphor for complex trauma recovery patterns.
“Like entrepreneurs rebuilding after failed ventures, survivors must recognize that narcissistic abuse creates artificial disadvantage cycles that persist beyond the relationship itself. The abuser’s systematic undermining of your successes and amplification of your failures wasn’t random cruelty—it was strategic manipulation designed to create learned helplessness. Understanding this allows you to approach recovery like a successful entrepreneur approaches a new venture: by creating small wins that build positive momentum over time.”
Historical Context
Published during the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, this research emerged when understanding resilience and recovery patterns became particularly relevant to both academic and popular discourse. The timing allowed researchers to examine how past performance affected entrepreneurs’ ability to navigate economic uncertainty, providing insights that extend beyond business contexts to personal recovery situations. The study contributed to growing literature on persistence and resilience that would later influence trauma recovery approaches.
Further Reading
• Bandura, A. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, examining how success experiences build confidence and capability beliefs.
• Duckworth, A. L., Steen, T. A., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2005). Positive psychology in clinical practice. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, exploring how positive momentum contributes to therapeutic outcomes.
• Tedeschi, R. G., & Calhoun, L. G. (2004). Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence. Psychological Inquiry, investigating how adversity can ultimately lead to positive transformation patterns.
About the Author
Paul Gompers is Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, specializing in entrepreneurial finance and venture capital. He has published extensively on startup ecosystems and entrepreneurial success patterns.
Josh Lerner is Jacob H. Schiff Professor of Investment Banking at Harvard Business School and head of the Entrepreneurial Management Unit. He is a leading authority on venture capital, private equity, and innovation policy.
David Scharfstein is Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School, focusing on corporate finance and financial institutions. His research examines how financial constraints affect business decisions and outcomes.
Anna Kovner is Senior Vice President at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where she leads research on financial institutions and monetary policy. She specializes in entrepreneurial finance and small business lending.
Historical Context
Published during the recovery from the 2008 financial crisis, this research emerged when understanding resilience and recovery patterns became crucial. The timing provided unique insights into how past performance affects access to resources during economic stress, paralleling how trauma survivors navigate ongoing challenges.
Frequently Asked Questions
Research shows that past failures can create persistent disadvantage cycles, limiting access to resources and opportunities. However, understanding these patterns allows survivors to actively work to break negative cycles through small wins and gradual confidence building.
Like entrepreneurs, survivors with early recovery successes often experience positive momentum that builds over time. Those who face initial setbacks may need more support and patience to establish positive patterns that become self-reinforcing.
Yes, research on performance persistence reveals how small wins create upward spirals while failures can create downward cycles. This framework helps survivors understand their recovery trajectory and strategically build momentum.
Abusers often systematically undermine victims' successes while highlighting failures, creating artificial disadvantage cycles that persist even after leaving the relationship. Recognizing this manipulation is crucial for recovery.
Just as failed entrepreneurs struggle to access funding, abuse survivors may face barriers to therapy, support networks, and opportunities. Identifying and accessing appropriate resources is essential for creating positive momentum.
The research suggests starting with small, achievable goals to create success experiences. Each positive outcome builds self-efficacy and access to further opportunities, gradually reversing negative persistence patterns.
Persistence patterns in performance research show that overcoming disadvantage cycles takes sustained effort over time. Understanding this helps normalize the lengthy recovery process and reduces self-blame for survivors.
Clinicians can help clients identify negative persistence patterns from abuse, then strategically design interventions that create small wins and positive momentum, gradually building toward larger recovery goals.