The aim of the study was to empirically verify the model of family determinants of entrepreneurial success, thus analyzing the importance of different paths of parental influence on business effectiveness with the mediating role of self-esteem and achievement motivation. The study was conducted in Poland, on a group of 400 entrepreneurs (SME owners) who have been running their business in Poland for at least 3 years, randomly selected from CEIDG (Central Registration and Information on Business in Poland) electronic register of entrepreneurs. In the study the following tools were used: Questionnaire of Entrepreneurial Success by Staniewski et al.; Personal Data Sheet, created by the authors for the purposes of the study; Retrospective Evaluation of Parental Attitudes Questionnaire by Plopa (2008); Entrepreneur’s Family Communication Questionnaire by Staniewski et al. (2023); Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (Polish version by Łaguna et al., 2007); Achievement Motivation Inventory (abbreviated version) created by Schuler et al. (adapted to Polish by Klinkosz & Sękowski (2013). The initially proposed model fell short in fitting data satisfactorily, although it was in general agreement with them. A modified and simplified version of the model, proved to be a better representation of the collected data and confirmed the general theoretical assumption posed in this work.