Economy

This study examines how the entrepreneurial mindset develops and is enacted, and how entrepreneurs relate it to business success in uncertain and competitive environments. Using an interpretive, exploratory qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four entrepreneurs from different sectors in Portugal. The interviews took place between May and September 2024, lasted 30–60 minutes, were manually transcribed, and analysed through thematic and cross-case comparison. The findings show that the entrepreneurial mindset is a dynamic configuration shaped by education, professional experience, family and mentor influence, extracurricular participation, and business networks. Resilience, adaptability, continuous learning, strategic vision, communication, calculated risk-taking, and innovation supported opportunity recognition and effective responses to adversity. Psychological capital reinforced persistence, while social capital expanded access to knowledge and opportunities. Participants defined success multidimensionally, combining economic viability with autonomy, employee well-being, professional fulfilment, innovation, and social or environmental value. The findings suggest that entrepreneurship education and policy should integrate technical knowledge with experiential learning, reflective practice, psychological resources, and network development. By linking individual, social, and contextual factors to adaptive business practice, the study offers a cross-sector account of how entrepreneurial cognition is translated into action and how life-course development shapes multidimensional understandings of business success.