Including the Dark Side of Entrepreneurship in the Entrepreneurship Education

Abstract

Pursuing an entrepreneurial career is often rewarding in terms of both economic and psychological outcomes. However, becoming an entrepreneur also has its darker side that affects professional and personal life. Meanwhile, the positivity bias is prevalent in entrepreneurial education and research. It is recognized as emphasizing the advantages of becoming an entrepreneur and giving considerably less attention to potential downsides. Based on the theoretical model of met expectations, it is proposed that building an accurate and balanced image of the entrepreneurial career is crucial to help students prepare to pursue it successfully. Using data from SEAS (Survey on Entrepreneurial Attitudes of Students) Project, authors quantitatively test the perception of the severity of negative aspects of entrepreneurship among 513 business students from northern Poland. Further, the results of 16 semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with mature and experienced entrepreneurs from the same region are presented. They are focused on the entrepreneurs’ perspective on the experienced dark sides and reveal employed coping strategies. A call is made to include these findings in designing university entrepreneurship programs by eliciting the awareness of the existence of the dark sides and indicating the means of their attenuation.

1. Introduction

In the contemporary constantly changing environment, entrepreneurship education is going to face an increased number of challenges. The upcoming social and economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide are likely to increase the role of entrepreneurs and, at the same time, raise the level of difficulty they face. It is thus important to address some still unsolved issues regarding entrepreneurship education and tailor them to the current and forthcoming needs. One of such issues is the positivity bias common in entrepreneurial research and education. It is recognized as emphasizing the advantages of becoming an entrepreneur and giving considerably less attention to potential difficulties. In this article, we focus on a more critical approach and study the dark side of entrepreneurship.

The met expectations model is employed as a theoretical basis that explains why a balanced and realistic approach to portraying a career path is crucial in increasing satisfaction and survival rate. The model is described in the first part of the article, and its suitability to entrepreneurship is discussed. In the next part, we describe previous theoretical propositions and empirical studies on the possible dark sides of being an entrepreneur. The following part is focused on the most recent approaches to entrepreneurship education and highlighting the challenges it needs to face to become more comprehensive and effective.

The empirical part of the paper describes findings of two studies: a quantitative study on the perception of dark sides of the entrepreneurial career among 513 university students and a qualitative study that included semi-structured interviews with a group of 16 experienced entrepreneurs. The quantitative study revealed that students perceive the downsides as quite severe and that this perception differs depending on gender and study cycle (undergraduate versus graduate). The qualitative study allowed adding the entrepreneurs’ perspective on the dark sides, putting it into a meaningful context, and revealing different coping strategies that can be used to attenuate possible repercussions.

Finally, a discussion is made highlighting the findings from both parts of the research, and a call to include these findings in the process of designing university entrepreneurship programs by not only eliciting the awareness of the existence of the dark side but also to indicate the means of coping with it. The authors argue that the inclusion of the dark side of entrepreneurship in various curricula is essential, especially nowadays, in order to better prepare potential future entrepreneurs for their careers in an environment full of uncertainty.

2. Theoretical Background

2.1. Met Expectations Model

Unmet expectations regarding one’s role and career have been found to be a significant source of a lack of satisfaction [1]. The concept of met expectations has been studied in the organizational context for a long time. More than six decades ago Weitz [2] conducted a simple study with potential insurance agents as participants. Approximately half of the applicants for this position were given a booklet, which included information about agents’ work. The booklet covered time spent on different activities and their description. The other half of the participants—the control group—did not receive such information. The author of the study discovered that the termination rate after several months was significantly lower in the first group, even though the time it took, on average, to hire a candidate was no longer in any of the groups. Weitz proposed that prospective agents were less likely to leave their position because they could build a realistic image of their work. The idea of the significant relationship between met expectations regarding a job, higher level of satisfaction, and a higher survival rate has been studied in subsequent research projects. Porter and Steers [3] proposed that met expectations should be perceived in terms of the discrepancy between expectations regarding one’s job and actual experiences. Interestingly, in their opinion, this pertains to both positive and negative expectations. Even though expectations held by new members of organizations may often tend to be exaggerated, it is their accuracy that plays a crucial role [4].

An organizational practice related to managing expectations is the development of realistic job reviews. They may include the description of performed activities, work conditions, expectations of external and internal customers, different regulations and restrictions, and other elements that affect people in a specific position. It has also been found that job survival rates are higher when employees are a source of information used in the recruitment process [4]. Wanous, Poland, Premack and Davis [4] propose that they operate similarly to realistic job reviews. In a meta-analysis of research on met expectations, these authors found that they were related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intent to remain, and job survival. It is important to identify the mechanism which governs the positive effects of holding a realistic image of job requirements. Hom, Griffeth, Palich and Bracker [5] proposed that anticipating challenging events facilitates the ability to initiate adequate coping strategies. Namely, an individual might be ready to perform actions necessary to deal with expected negative or stressful situations. At the same time, a person should experience lower levels of stress as being familiar with the possibility of experiencing a particular challenge, and knowing that its occurrence should be considered normal, may play a role similar to vaccination effects.

We want to draw a parallel between these findings obtained in organizational behavior studies and entrepreneurship. From our point of view, the theoretical model of met expectations is a good fit here as potential entrepreneurs may hold an inflated view of running their own business as they are often exposed to images of highly successful entrepreneurs. A positivity bias may also be present in entrepreneurial education, which, in many parts of the world, is performed by people who do not have particularly rich practical experience. Additionally, entrepreneurship education is often based on theoretical models and does not necessarily include a more fine-grained picture of what it is like to be an entrepreneur. We believe that learning about the dark sides of the entrepreneurial career might help students to cope with them in terms of both: problem-focused coping and performing the actions necessary to find solutions, and emotion-focused coping related to experiencing lesser emotional costs of encountered disadvantages which should be perceived as part and parcel of running one’s venture. Therefore, in this paper, we want to present research findings from both students and entrepreneurs that allow us to verify and contrast their expectations about the dark side of entrepreneurship.

2.2. The Dark Side of the Entrepreneurial Career

It is almost cliché to state that entrepreneurs contribute greatly to the growth of economies and the development of innovation. There are numerous publications which describe the positive aspects of becoming self-employed. Beaver and Jennings [6] noted that both popular press and professional business and scientific articles often describe examples of particularly successful entrepreneurs who become role models for others and whose observations may ignite dreams of establishing own ventures. This practice is likely to elicit the positivity bias and create only a one-sided image of entrepreneurship. Additionally, entrepreneurship education, where the goal is to promote entrepreneurial motivation, persistence, and help develop entrepreneurial skills, often includes elements related to encouraging experimentation. Justified claims are made that it is “ok to fail” and that it is possible to recover from a failed business and try again. This way of thinking also has its role models, including Abraham Lincoln, who is often described as a person who endured countless failures before becoming successful. His example has been evoked over many years and also included in the recent publications pertaining to entrepreneurship. For example, in a 2019 Forbes article, its author stated [7]:

According to the Small Business Association 30% of new businesses fail during their first two years, 50% during the first five and 66% during the first 10. If you are recovering from a failed business, take heart from Lincoln. Much like an entrepreneur who starts again after a failed business, Lincoln’s solution was far from a quick fix.

Undoubtedly this can be very sound advice. Nevertheless, it is important to note that focusing on successful people who failed multiple times before achieving their well-known accomplishments makes one prone to positivity and survivorship biases. Judgments and guidelines based on the observation of a small minority of people who became hugely successful tend to be distorted [8]. There were most likely numerous people who faced failures but never recovered. Many people dropped out of college and, unlike Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, never became successful entrepreneurs, even though they tried very hard. It is essential for entrepreneurship educators not to fall prey to these biases and not display an overly positive image of an entrepreneurial career. The importance of undertaking a balanced approach has also been highlighted by other scholars. Shepherd and Haynie [9], for example, remarked that the literature on entrepreneurship is almost solely concentrated on rewards that are the effect of entrepreneurial actions, and called for further studies that explore possible darks sides and ways of mitigating them. We answer this call by investigating the dark sides of becoming an entrepreneur in the perception of university students and mature entrepreneurs as well as ways of dealing with them exercised by the latter group. We believe that including it in entrepreneurial education can help those who aspire to become future entrepreneurs to prepare for both positive and negative aspects of this role. At the same time, we want to highlight that it is not our aim to diminish the undeniable positive aspects of entrepreneurship for individuals, society, and economies. On the contrary, we believe that revealing its dark sides may be crucial for the positives to flourish.

Other authors have described the dark sides of entrepreneurship. Shepherd and Haynie [9], for example, in their conceptual paper, proposed that entrepreneurs need to find a balance between distinctiveness from others, which is typically associated with entrepreneurship and the need to belong, which is also an intrinsic need of human beings. When this need is not satisfied, the individual feels isolated, and the level of well-being is decreased [10]. Shepherd and Haynie [9] assert that such a situation may often occur in the case of entrepreneurs and that it is a possible backlash of pursuing the motivation to be distinct. In their opinion, entrepreneurship may be dysfunctional or even destructive for an entrepreneur. At the same time, the right balance is not easy to find as uniqueness is inseparable from being a successful entrepreneur, and “imbalances in identity needs” are likely to emerge. Basing on the optimal distinctiveness theory [11], they proposed that both integration and compartmentalization strategies may be applied by entrepreneurs to manage their identities and maintain an optimal balance between distinctiveness and belonging.

Evidence indicates that entrepreneurs’ family relationships may suffer because of the demands of their professional role [12,13]. This phenomenon seems to be often more harmful in the case of women entrepreneurs. For example, Ufuk and Ozgen [13] found that more than 70% of participants in their study conducted on Turkish women entrepreneurs experienced a conflict between the requirements of their professional and personal roles. In their research findings, entrepreneurship seems to be Janus-faced. On the one hand, it brings the stated negative results, while on the other, it has a positive impact on economic and social position. Additionally, Kirkwood and Tootell [12] concluded their research on women entrepreneurs by indicating that the entrepreneurial career is not necessarily the best remedy for women who seek work-life balance. Lee and Denslow [14] found it to be a problem of American women entrepreneurs as well.

Entrepreneurship addiction is another recently investigated dark side [15]. The previously described persistence of entrepreneurship has been proposed to be sometimes a possible effect of this phenomenon [16]. Spivack and McKelvie [15], in their proposed definition of the entrepreneurial addiction, base it on the common understanding of addictions in general. Hence entrepreneurial activities that are an indication of addiction need to be excessive or compulsive, bring negative consequences, and be continued in spite of them. Particular elements of entrepreneurship addiction are also shared with other types of addiction. For example, they include obsessive thoughts, withdrawing from other activities, or making the global assessment of one’s self-worth dependent solely on the outcomes of entrepreneurial actions. Even though the authors do not directly tackle this aspect, one may assume that a high propensity to deny the existence of the problem, or at least to belittle its magnitude, significantly might be an additional characteristic common to entrepreneurial and other addictions. Like the women entrepreneurs mentioned earlier, those addicted may experience a number of negative consequences (i.e., dark sides) in their family and social lives. Spivack, McKelvie and Haynie [16] mentioned that some entrepreneurs who might display elements corresponding with the addiction model declared that their family lacked empathy and understanding of the hardships related to managing a business. Still, their ventures might benefit in terms of higher performance or faster growth. However, it is not sure if this growth might be sustainable or upheld in the long run.

Manfred Kets de Vries [17] analyzed entrepreneurs from the psychoanalytical standpoint. He noticed several recurring themes that can also be connected with the dark side of entrepreneurship. The high need for control, together with the need to be admired by others, can be listed. When operating together, these two strivings make one prone to establish what de Vries described as a dramatic organization. An entrepreneur in charge of it tends to be aggressive, impulsive, act without deeper considerations, and rationalize decisions after they are made without insight into the actual irrational reasons behind them. As Kets de Vries [17] (p. 878) put it: “The darker side of entrepreneurship can have a devastating effect; all too many entrepreneurial businesses self-destruct because of such behavior patterns.” As this diagnosis is made from the psychoanalytical point of view, its author proposes that professional help might often be needed to realize the possibly destructive actions one performs and to overcome their adverse effects. All in all, he asserts that the potent needs of entrepreneurs may potentially turn against them, their well-being and performance. De Vries [18] focused on the dark side of entrepreneurship, which has its source in entrepreneurs’ psychology and is self-inflicted. He sees it as a source of considerable tension that entrepreneurs often experience.

Stress related to an entrepreneurial career is another issue that is visible in research findings. Some scholars found that entrepreneurs are likely to experience tension and that it is accurate to talk about a mix of different, both positive and negative, yet intensive emotions in their case. Corroborating evidence comes from different cultures and continents (e.g., [19,20,21,22]). For example, Jamal [22] conducted a study on the sample of Canadian entrepreneurs and discovered that when compared to a group of employees, they declared a higher level of stress. It can be associated with chronic uncertainty that they face, significant workload, and a high risk of failure. The latter can have a severe effect if we also take into account that many entrepreneurs operate as sole proprietors, which makes them responsible for all potential losses of their company in an unlimited way. Jenkins, Wiklund and Brundin [23] discovered that a firm’s failure triggers serious negative emotional consequences for a number of entrepreneurs, though again, it is fair to state that these reactions are not uniform. Akande [19] conducted a qualitative study focused on Nigerian entrepreneurs. Stress was found to be an inherent element of the entrepreneurial career, and at the same time, it was accompanied by positive emotions. The author described four sources of stress, including some aspects that have been mentioned in the current paper. In this list, he included loneliness, workload related to many hours spent at work, conflicts with business partners, and the misalignment between high aspirations and the actual outcomes.

The described dark sides should, in our opinion, become elements of responsible and effective entrepreneurship education. The process of their inclusion needs to take into account the latest findings and ideas developed in the area of entrepreneurship education. We present them in the next part of the article.

2.3. Entrepreneurship Education and the Polish Context

Entrepreneurship education research has been getting more and more popular among researchers for many years, however, this topic is still far from being exhausted. Increased demand for entrepreneurship education in the hope of boosting new venture creation and thus, the economy, in a constantly changing environment, creates new challenges for practitioners and researchers in the field. Due to the recent pandemic of COVID-19, one might expect a major shift in topics concerning entrepreneurship education research. In the near future, the impact of the necessity of distant or blended learning and working, together with the rapidly increasing usage of digital technologies related to that, will certainly create new research avenues in the field.

In the current circumstances, it is interesting to come back to the classic paper by Kuratko [24], who refers to the empirical analysis on entrepreneurship education by Solomon and colleagues [25]. The author states that the “core objective” of entrepreneurship education is that it must be different from typical business education in which students learn how to manage a business. Moreover, it should focus more on teaching skills in negotiation and leadership classes, among others. It ought to foster creative thinking and expose students to technological innovations. It should all be accomplished by the use of a variety of tools categorized as “experiential learning”, such as interviews with practicing entrepreneurs, environmental scans, field trips, or computer simulations. Kuratko [24] mentions, as well, some challenges which entrepreneurship education faces. The first one worth mentioning is a lack of entrepreneurship faculties at the universities and the lack of Ph.D. programs in the field. Secondly, Kuratko calls for recognition and application of modern technologies in entrepreneurship education, as in the study by Solomon and colleagues [25], authors show that only “21% of the respondents (in the United States) indicated they use distance-learning technologies in their entrepreneurship education courses.” After 15 years, it is clear that these challenges were valid but regrettably only partially addressed in practice [26]. Universities start to create departments or faculties focused on entrepreneurship, and some of them even offer Ph.D. programs in entrepreneurship. When it comes to distant learning, one should expect the rapid growth of online courses offered—not only in the field of entrepreneurship.

One of the early systematic literature reviews on entrepreneurship education [27] confirms the impact of entrepreneurship education on students’ propensity and intentionality. However, it also points out the unclear impact of this education on the potential effectiveness of being an entrepreneur in the future if a student decides to become one. Finally, the authors also suggest a lack of consensus on what entrepreneurship education really is in practice. Fayolle [28], in his article, seems to acknowledge these findings and extend the view on the future of entrepreneurship education. He recognizes the quick expansion of entrepreneurship education. While entrepreneurship courses are mostly offered at the university level, they start to be offered in secondary or even primary schools. Such a variety of teaching programs on different levels (primary or secondary schools; business or technical universities), among different audiences (e.g., men or women; employed or unemployed) and cultures require different teaching methods. The author highlights the problem of a lack of knowledge of implications stemming from such variety [28]. Fayolle notices that when it comes to methods in entrepreneurship education, the emphasis is mainly put on active and “experiential” methods, “learning by doing” in “the real world” environment. He also points out that few articles at that time examined the relevance and effectiveness of methods associated with distance learning which could be a valuable way of teaching. The evaluation or measurement of the long-term effects of entrepreneurship education is difficult and scarce in the literature. Finally, Fayolle highlights some dire problems concerning entrepreneurship education. Conclusions from literature reviews suggest the lack of theory-driven research in the field. Combined with the lack of a critical approach, it results in challenges regarding the legitimacy of entrepreneurship research [28].

What are the theoretical foundations of entrepreneurship education? Michela Loi and her colleagues performed a co-citation analysis covering the period 1991–2014 in order to answer this question [29]. The authors indicate that the research field has a polycentric structure with five main core themes: introspection, entrepreneurial intentions (being the most influential theme), pedagogy, entrepreneurial learning (the most recent theme), and evaluation. One of the recent literature reviews focuses on conceptualizing context in entrepreneurship education [30]. The authors suggest that context elements can be identified across three different levels: macro (e.g., country/nation level), meso (e.g., university), and micro (e.g., students and their activities). Another recent work by Aadland and Aaboen [31] aims to classify entrepreneurship education (namely educational designs) with regard to different educational approaches and learning contexts. The authors explore different models of entrepreneurship education offered at technical universities in the Nordic countries. Through their exploration and literature review, they propose a six-class taxonomy of entrepreneurship education approaches. With regard to learning contexts: “imitation”, “pretense” and “real”. With regard to educational conceptions: “teacher-directed”, “participatory”, and “self-directed” [31]. Another work highlighting the contextuality of entrepreneurship education is an article by Egerova and colleagues [32].

One of the recent systematic literature reviews focuses on the effect of entrepreneurship education in schools on entrepreneurial outcomes. One of the main findings of this study is that the impact of entrepreneurship education is gender- and age-sensitive. For instance, entrepreneurship education has a less positive effect on female and older pupils’ entrepreneurship outcomes than male and younger pupils [33]. Another important conclusion of the study is that the positive effect of entrepreneurship education seems stronger while the program is less achievement-oriented. Finally, the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial outcomes is moderated by variables such as gender, age, and prior experience.

Another important study focused on the outcomes of entrepreneurship education takes into account a different context. Drawing on institutional theory and the model of entrepreneurial action, authors build a multilevel model on entrepreneurship education outcomes, taking into account the institutional perspective (and its hostility towards entrepreneurial actions) [34]. The authors state that most studies find a positive effect of entrepreneurship education on entrepreneurial intention, however, some find negative effects. Walter and Block pose a question of how this relation is affected by the country’s institutions.

The expansion and greater availability of entrepreneurship courses, thanks to the advances in digital technologies (e.g., distant learning), bring another context to entrepreneurship education. Teaching entrepreneurship in an international environment, often among different cultures, creates a transnational context. A recent article by Nattavud Pimpa deals with this problem. The author states that there is no clear evidence of how to effectively manage entrepreneurship programs in transnational context [35]. Once again, the author highlights recommended educational methods for teaching entrepreneurship, such as “effectuation”, “business reasoning”, or “scenario thinking” which are quite different from the methods used in general business education, which are often based on simple knowledge passing in a classroom environment. Problems with teaching in transnational context mainly stem from different communication styles between teachers and students and some culture-related biases [35].

International collaboration and digital technologies affect not only entrepreneurship courses but sometimes the whole Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). A very sophisticated structured literature review on digital academic entrepreneurship has been done recently by Secundo, Rippa and Cerchione [36]. The authors, based on the literature review, define academic entrepreneurship by endeavors such as research collaboration with industry, patent applications, idea spin-offs into new firms, entrepreneurial education of highly skilled individuals and business incubators. According to the authors, this research area is still fragmented and undertheorized, and they call for more systematic and holistic studies, considering the technological, economic, and social aspects of Academic Entrepreneurship [36].

Some of the best practices in entrepreneurship education have been highlighted in the study by Nieuwenhuizen and colleagues [37]. The authors once again refer to practical, and connected to real environment methods of teaching, as better than traditional classroom-based approaches. Another important finding of theirs is diversification of programs at different teaching levels, i.e., from non-specialized undergraduate courses to more specialized and interdisciplinary courses at postgraduate levels of teaching. Finally, the authors notice that most successful HEIs create independent entrepreneurship hubs or centers to facilitate teaching at different courses and levels more effectively, and possibly, to foster academic entrepreneurship [37]. The trend of introducing entrepreneurship centers within HEIs is noticed in other works. Insights from European entrepreneurship centers and how their form depends on a particular HEI’s strategy can be found in work by Ndou and colleagues [38].

Many authors recognize the necessity for new directions of entrepreneurship research and make some recommendations. In one of the recent works suggesting a change in research directions, authors state that often, academic literature lags behind practice [26], referring to Turner and Gianiodis [39] who said that “major gaps remain to what content to teach, how to teach it, who qualifies to teach, and to what type of student.” Ratten and Usmanij see entrepreneurship education as interactive learning, linked with business and based on case studies [26]. They mention two main schools of thought about entrepreneurship—causal and effectuation approach. Teaching entrepreneurship has evolved from teaching how to start business, through recognizing business opportunities, to starting digital ventures [26]. The authors indicate future challenges connected with entrepreneurship education and research. To name a few: a need for more longitudinal studies as some effects of entrepreneurship education need time to show (time lag); call for the examination of barriers of knowledge sharing in the field; tailoring the intensity of courses (do more courses cause more venture creation?); unwanted effects of entrepreneurial education and finally, the topic of gender roles in education [26,40].

Finally, worth mentioning are some of the newest emerging trends in entrepreneurship research. In line with recommendations of some previously cited authors, recently, many papers in the field have included proposals of new education frameworks. An example of a new holistic framework based on experiential learning and focused on behavioral and business competencies is work by Charrón Vías and Rivera-Cruz [41]. Another article introducing a new conceptual framework is [42]. Apart from new frameworks’ creation, some authors start to focus more on social entrepreneurship —type of entrepreneurship which deals with “entrepreneurs who are driven by a variety of motives including the alleviation of poverty, hunger or illiteracy; the improvement of human health; the reparation of social, legal or economic injustice; and the preservation of the environment for future generations” [43]. A recent systematic literature review encompasses the topic of social entrepreneurship and the university’s environment [43].

The last trend worth mentioning, in the authors’ opinion, which also should not be underestimated, is entrepreneurship education based on role models. Nowadays, many successful entrepreneurs are widely recognized or even sometimes referred to as celebrities e.g., Elon Musk. Undoubtedly, the careers of such individuals might inspire university students around the world. As their stories might serve as a valuable medium to convey entrepreneurship teaching, at the same time, it should be used with caution in order not to fall into the trap of “ever positive” entrepreneurship. Especially in the current circumstances, one should always remember the “high risk high reward” possibility of running a successful business, e.g., a recent file for bankruptcy protection (end of June 2020) of multi-million dollar company Cirque du Soleil due to the COVID-19 repercussions. An example of the recent work dealing with the role model of entrepreneurship teaching is an article by Boldureanu and colleagues [44].

The authors acknowledge the importance of setting the context of the study. Therefore, the most important and adequate research concerning Poland and international comparison regarding entrepreneurship education is discussed. The goal of this is to highlight the potential distinctiveness of our sample or differences between other countries and to make it easier for other researchers to compare our data and results with other studies. The generalizability of the current research will be further discussed in the last part of the article.

Firstly, it is important to realize that the development of entrepreneurship research and entrepreneurship education has been different in terms of pace and scope across the globe (e.g., in Northern America and Europe). A very useful summary, including a timeline of events and a general outlook on the history of entrepreneurship education in Europe was given by Wach [45]. Specifically, for studying differences between countries in Europe, many researchers use the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) data. One of the studies utilizing this data to present differences between Poland and other states, with emphasis placed on the role of Polish HEIs in the development of entrepreneurship education, is a work by Nowak [46]. The author showed comparisons of different countries conducted from different perspectives (e.g., experts vs. students) and stated that as Poland was a country with a high number of students in absolute and relative terms, the higher education system could be used to promote entrepreneurial knowledge and values. At the same time, she found that Polish students believed that significant changes should be introduced to make entrepreneurial education much more practical.

Another perspective that one may take is perceiving Poland as a member of a distinctive group of post-communist European countries. In work by Varblane and Mets [47], the authors mapped the current situation of entrepreneurship education in HEIs of European transition economies (including Poland). They concluded that a greater emphasis should be placed on entrepreneurship-oriented curricula in general, using more active teaching methods, collaboration with expert entrepreneurs, and developing entrepreneurial attitudes in particular. An even more specific group of countries that can be clustered together with Poland also includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. In all of them during the communist era, private ownership was allowed but was considerably limited. It puts them between those post-communist states where private entrepreneurship was banned for a few decades (e.g., Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic states) and those where it was moderately encouraged (i.e., Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia) [47]. This period’s legacy included a mixed or sometimes even negative attitude towards entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs that these countries have struggled with. One of the findings important for the present research about the dark side of entrepreneurship is that business students in Poland do not perceive the institutional support offered to entrepreneurs as particularly high [48]. It may elicit the need to focus, in particular, on specific difficulties related to pursuing an entrepreneurial career during entrepreneurial education and makes the development of entrepreneurial self-efficacy among students particularly important [49].

Apart from inter-country comparisons, there are important studies focused on Poland specifically. One of them is the work by Rachwał and colleagues [50], who studied entrepreneurship education after the reform of the education system. Their article has an application value as it shows particular elements that should be strengthened in teaching entrepreneurship. They include social and personal competencies that are also perceived by the authors of the current paper as crucial in the process of effectively facing the dark sides of entrepreneurship. Finally, an insightful study concerning the impact of education and professional experience on entrepreneurial success was conducted on a considerable sample of Polish adults by Kurczewska and colleagues [51]. The main conclusion was that both these elements are fundamental and used in tandem by successful entrepreneurs.

3. Research Methods and Findings

The presented literature review indicates several important issues that we address in our research. First of all, entrepreneurial research does not need to have a universal, positive impact on entrepreneurial intentions and actions. Its achievement requires a fine-grained approach that considers individual characteristics of students (e.g., gender and age). This approach may additionally require taking into account different perspectives of undergraduate and graduate students. Moreover, the courses should, to a possibly large extent, include information from practitioners—experienced current and former entrepreneurs, preferably from people at different stages of entrepreneurial careers. However, this information should not be provided outside of meaningful frameworks, but rather, should be combined to form meaningful new models and theories or be presented with the use of existing ones.

In the current paper, we present research findings that allow us to meet these objectives. We offer the results of a study conducted on a group of students, which allows us to verify what negative aspects of becoming an entrepreneur they perceive as potentially most harmful, depending on their gender and the cycle of study. Later, we compare and contrast this information with findings obtained in qualitative research conducted with expert entrepreneurs as participants. We demonstrate the drawbacks they need to face and ways of coping with these drawbacks. Based on the met expectations model, we later propose how our findings may be incorporated into entrepreneurial education. We state the following research questions:

Which negative aspects of being an entrepreneur are perceived by students as the most harmful, depending on their gender and study cycle?

What are the negative aspects of being an entrepreneur on the perspective of people with entrepreneurial experience?

What ways of coping with the negative aspects of the entrepreneurial career are practiced by people with entrepreneurial experience?

3.1. Quantitative Study Methods

The following part of the research is based on the data collected within the SEAS Project, which stands for “Survey on Entrepreneurial Attitudes of Students.” The project is focused on students’ entrepreneurship, its determinants and antecedents, combined with career choice study, education process evaluation, and other student-related issues. It is realized in the form of a quantitative study. Data is collected using a questionnaire containing several types of questions: multiple-choice, based on a Likert scale and several open-ended questions. In the recent waves of the study, the project has been extended to include universities from other countries and changed its questionnaire form from paper to digital. In this article, the authors use data from recent waves concerning business students from northern Poland during their last semester of studies.

After performing the data clean-up and checking for missing and inconsistent answers, the authors received a sample of 513 (out of 540 responses prior to the clean-up). For the purpose of the research, the authors focused on one particular question concerning the perception of negative aspects of running a business. Respondents were asked to assess on a 5-point Likert scale (where 1 being “no”; 2—“rather not”; 3—“neither yes nor no”; 4—“rather yes”; and 5—“yes”) how important each of the following items, presented in

Table 1. Description of items and descriptive statistics with frequencies.

Item Number	Description of the Negative Aspect	Frequencies (5-Point Likert)					Mean	SD
		1	2	3	4	5
1	income uncertainty	8	40	50	264	151	3.99	0.92
		1.6%	7.8%	9.7%	51.5%	29.4%
2	risk of bankruptcy	13	42	61	208	189	4.01	1.02
		2.5%	8.2%	11.9%	40.5%	36.8%
3	responsibility for the employees	22	66	109	202	114	3.62	1.09
		4.3%	12.9%	21.2%	39.4%	22.2%
4	work seven days a week	46	137	101	121	108	3.21	1.29
		9.0%	26.7%	19.7%	23.6%	21.1%
5	stress	28	81	106	170	128	3.56	1.18
		5.5%	15.8%	20.7%	33.1%	25.0%
6	necessity of owning capital	16	57	111	203	126	3.71	1.05
		3.1%	11.1%	21.6%	39.6%	24.6%
7	legal responsibility	19	41	87	223	143	3.84	1.04
		3.7%	8.0%	17.0%	43.5%	27.9%
8	lack of time for family	36	96	110	145	126	3.45	1.24
		7.0%	18.7%	21.4%	28.3%	24.6%
9	transferring problems within company onto family	70	109	90	122	122	3.23	1.38
		13.6%	21.2%	17.5%	23.8%	23.8%
10	high costs of running own business	10	38	105	221	139	3.86	0.96
		1.9%	7.4%	20.5%	43.1%	27.1%

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

below, would be for them. The items were based on the literature review (i.a., [52] and [53]) and the results and experience from prior waves of the project. Items such as “lack of time for family” (Item 8) and “transferring problems within company onto family” (Item 9) are connected with those previously described in the literature review work-life balance, whereas items like “work seven days a week” (Item 4) or “income uncertainty” (Item 1) and “risk of bankruptcy” (Item 2) are related to high workload and uncertainty which might lead to “stress” (Item 5) [19]. The rest of the items are mainly related to legal and financial responsibilities, which are often important concerns of students based on the previous results of the project. For instance, “responsibility for the employees” (Item 3), “necessity of owning capital” (Item 6), or “legal responsibility” (Item 7), and finally, “high costs of running own business” (Item 10).

It is important to notice that based solely on the mean values of all the items (all items were measured on a 5-point Likert scale), none of the results was lower than 3 (i.e., the middle of the scale standing for “neither yes nor no”). It means that students are indifferent to none of the items, and they consider all of them as important potential negative aspects of running a business. Items characterized by the highest mean values were related to financial risks, namely “income uncertainty” (3.99) and “risk of bankruptcy” (4.01), while “transferring problems within company onto family” (3.23) and “working seven days a week” (3.21) were perceived as (relatively) the least important ones.

In order to group items into meaningful factors, the authors performed Principal Component Analysis (PCA) followed by Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA). PCA procedure indicated the number of fixed factors to be extracted being equal to three [54]. The scree plot summarizing the PCA is shown below (see Figure 1).

The Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed using the maximum likelihood extraction method with orthogonal varimax rotation as factors were uncorrelated (

Table 2. Correlation matrix (factors).

	1	2	3
1	—	0.052	0.134
2		—	0.112
3			—

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

).

Explanatory Factor Analysis yielded three factors to be constructed from given items. Factor 1 consisted of items number 4, 5, 8, and 9; Factor 2 of items 1, 2, and 10; and Factor 3 of items 3, 6, and 7 (see

Table 3. EFA—Factor loadings.

	Factor
	1	2	3	Uniqueness
Item8	0.796			0.334
Item9	0.749			0.404
Item4	0.499			0.651
Item5	0.405			0.631
Item2		0.797		0.347
Item1		0.752		0.409
Item10		0.399		0.724
Item7			0.651	0.564
Item6			0.510	0.659
Item3			0.414	0.802

Note. ‘Maximum likelihood’ extraction method was used in combination with a ‘varimax’ rotation. Factor loadings < 0.399 were hidden. Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on [55].

).

The EFA was characterized by acceptable goodness of fit measures and assumption checks (see

Table 4. EFA—Model fit measures and assumption checks.

	RMSEA 90% CI				Model Test
RMSEA	Lower	Upper	TLI	BIC	χ²	df	p
0.0852	0.0675	0.104	0.864	−27.3	85.0	18	<0.001***
Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity					1284	45	< 0.001***
KMO Measure of Sampling Adequacy					0.760	Overall

Notes: *** Significance at 1% level. Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on [55].

). Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) was 0.864, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) was equal to 0.0852, and the model was statistically significant. The analysis yielded a sufficiently high Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy (KMO) equal to 0.760. KMO measure indicates that patterns of correlations are relatively compact, and hence, factor analysis should yield distinct and reliable factors. Finally, Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity is statistically significant, which indicates that correlations between variables are (overall) significantly different from 0.

Having extracted three factors, the authors performed scale reliability analysis with the use of Cronbach’s Alpha. For further analysis, in the light of previously described dark sides of entrepreneurship, the extracted factors were named as follows: Factor 1—Personal life, Factor 2—Financial aspects, and Factor 3—Responsibility. The scale reliability analysis indicated that only Factor 1 and Factor 2 are reliable (see

Table 5. Scale reliability statistics.

Factor	Items included	Cronbach’s α
Factor 1—Personal life	(4) work seven days a week (5) stress (8) lack of time for family (9) transferring problems within company onto family	0.761
Factor 2—Financial aspects	(1) income uncertainty (2) risk of bankruptcy (10) high costs of running own business	0.703
Factor 3—Responsibility	(3) responsibility for the employees (6) necessity of owning capital (7) legal responsibility	0.562

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

for details).

Due to the low reliability of Factor 3 (Responsibility), for the following research part, the authors decided to use only Factor 1 (Personal life) and Factor 2 (Financial aspects). However, we want to emphasize that Factor 3 is excluded from further statistical analysis only due to the obtained low reliability score. It is important to realize here that all the items constituting Factor 3 (Responsibility) were seen as important by students, who potentially will need to deal with them in the future. The detailed frequencies of the sample with respect to the chosen factors are shown in

Table 6. Table of frequencies.

			Factor 1		Factor 2
CYCLE	GENDER	N	Mean	SD	Mean	SD
1 (undergraduates)	1 (F)	193	3.40	0.979	4.02	0.701
	2 (M)	101	3.06	0.942	3.66	0.876
2 (graduates)	1 (F)	158	3.61	0.924	4.09	0.658
	2 (M)	59	3.17	0.936	3.94	0.896
ALL	ALL	511	3.36	0.972	3.95	0.768

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

. Mean values of factors’ composites for the whole sample (ALL) indicates that students consider financial aspects (Factor 2 mean = 3.95) as more important than personal life dark sides (Factor 1 mean = 3.36) with p-value < 0.001 of dependent samples’ Wilcoxon test; Z = −11.63.

The authors decided to perform a series of independent sample tests for significant differences in means between groups of students with regard to cycle (differences between undergraduates i.e., Bachelor (1) and graduates i.e., Master (2) students) and gender (differences between female (1) and male (2) students). Due to the violation of the assumption of normality, the authors used the Mann-Whitney test. The tests indicated statistically significant group differences between both cycle and gender group with regard to both factors, including dark sides of an entrepreneurial career, i.e., Factor 1—Personal life, and Factor 2—Financial aspects.

Mann-Whitney U statistic for differences between undergraduates and graduates (cycle) concerning personal life dark sides (Factor 1) was equal to 28,596 with p-value < 0.05 indicating statistically significant differences. Similarly, Mann-Whitney U statistic for differences between undergraduates and graduates (cycle) concerning financial aspects of running own business (Factor 2) was equal to 28,575 with p-value < 0.05 again indicating statistically significant differences (for the details see

Table A1. Tests for differences in means—CYCLE.

					95% Confidence Interval
CYCLE		Statistic	p	Mean difference	Lower	Upper
Factor1	Mann-Whitney U	28,596	0.029 **	−0.250	−0.500	−5.88e−5
Factor2	Mann-Whitney U	28,575	0.027 **	−3.28e−5	−0.333	−3.05e−5

Notes: ** significance at 5% level. Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on [55].

and

Table A2. Group descriptives—CYCLE.

	CYCLE	N	Mean	SD
Factor1	1 (undergraduates)	294	3.28	0.978
	2 (graduates)	219	3.47	0.954
Factor2	1 (undergraduates)	294	3.89	0.783
	2 (graduates)	219	4.04	0.741

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

in the Appendix A). The results were similar with regard to differences between female and male students. Mann-Whitney U statistic for differences between female and male students (gender) concerning personal life dark sides (Factor 1) was equal to 21,333 with p-value < 0.001 indicating statistically significant differences. Analogically, Mann-Whitney U statistic for differences between female and male students (gender) concerning financial aspects of running own business (Factor 2) was equal to 22,917 with p-value < 0.001, again indicating statistically significant differences between the groups (for the details see

Table A3. Tests for differences in means—GENDER.

					95% Confidence Interval
GENDER		Statistic	p	Mean difference	Lower	Upper
Factor1	Mann-Whitney U	21,333	< 0.001 ***	0.500	0.250	0.750
Factor2	Mann-Whitney U	22,917	< 0.001 ***	0.300	5.71e−5	0.333

Notes: *** Significance at 1% level. Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on [55].

and

Table A4. Group descriptives—GENDER.

	GENDER	N	Mean	SD
Factor1	1 (F)	351	3.49	0.959
	2 (M)	160	3.10	0.938
Factor2	1 (F)	351	4.05	0.682
	2 (M)	160	3.76	0.891

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

in the Appendix A).

Additionally, the authors checked the differences in group cycle with regard to both factors controlling for gender with the use of ANCOVA (covariate—gender). Controlling for gender did not affect the result. ANCOVA indicated statistically significant differences between students of different cycles with regard to Factor 1 and Factor 2 while controlling for gender differences (for the details, see

Table A5. ANCOVA—Factor 1 with covariate GENDER.

	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	p
Overall model	19.55	2	9.774	11.57	< 0.001 ***
Gender (covariate)	15.59	1	15.593	17.30	< 0.001 ***
Cycle	3.95	1	3.955	4.39	0.037 **
Residuals	457.96	508	0.902

Notes: *** Significance at 1% level, ** significance at 5% level. Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on [55].

and

Table A6. ANCOVA—Factor 2 with covariate GENDER.

	Sum of Squares	df	Mean Square	F	p
Overall model	10.61	2	5.304	10.03	< 0.001 ***
Gender (covariate)	8.46	1	8.460	14.98	< 0.001 ***
Cycle	2.15	1	2.149	3.81	0.052 *
Residuals	286.81	508	0.565

Notes: *** Significance at 1% level, * significance at 10% level. Source: Authors’ own elaboration based on [55].

in the Appendix A). Students of Master cycle (2) were characterized by higher mean values of Factor 1 (Personal life) and Factor 2 (Financial aspects) composites (for Factor 1: graduates’ composite = 3.47 > undergraduates’ composite = 3.28; for Factor 2: graduates’ composite = 4.04 > undergraduates’ composite = 3.89), while male students (2) were characterized by lower mean values of both respective composites (for Factor 1: males’ composite = 3.10 < females’ composite = 3.49; for Factor 2: males’ composite = 3.76 < females’ composite = 4.05).

While gender differences with respect to the mean values of both factors are not that surprising in view of the literature review and other studies (e.g., [33,40]), the increased mean values of both factors for graduates (Master) students might raise important questions. Our study does not yield a direct answer to the question of reasons for such a result. However, we would like to propose a hypothetical explanation for further inquiries. One of the possible reasons for these increased values might be the fact of higher awareness and more experience of Master students in comparison to their younger colleagues. In many entrepreneurship studies, a variable concerning “prior experience” plays a vital role [33]. Master students usually have at least some experience with short-term internships (mandatory at many universities) and some of them have already gained regular work experience. Sometimes they get their first experience in micro or small businesses where they have a high chance of getting a glimpse of an entrepreneur’s life. Moreover, older students are more likely to consider their future careers seriously and make plans for the future. Hence, their perception of the importance of the negative aspects of entrepreneurship might be higher in comparison to their younger colleagues who are still more occupied with student life.

For the detailed statistical analysis, please see Table A1, Table A2, Table A3, Table A4, Table A5 and Table A6 in the Appendix A.

3.2. Qualitative Study Methods

Qualitative research was used to investigate the perceived dark sides of the entrepreneurial career and ways of dealing with them. Qualitative methods allow to investigate given phenomena more deeply and illustrate relations between them [56]. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews conducted with a group of sixteen people with considerable entrepreneurial experience (the group members’ average experience was 11.4 years). There were seven females and nine males among interviewees. The majority of the group (i.e., fourteen participants) were active entrepreneurs. Two participants had decided to discontinue their ventures within a year before the interview was conducted and became paid employees. It allowed the researchers to include the perspective of entrepreneurs whose businesses were not successful enough to be continued and thus, to a certain extent, mitigate the effects of survivorship bias on research findings.

Findings from the semi-structured interviews which are important in regard to the scope of the current paper are presented in the subsequent paragraphs. All interlocutors were asked, inter alia, about their perception of positive and negative aspects of running their own venture. Individual methods of coping with the negative aspects were also investigated. Each interviewee was asked to present the context of performed operations. All conducted interviews were transcribed and subsequently coded. The coding procedure included the use of both deductive and inductive codes. The former were based on the literature review, whereas the latter emerged during the data interpretation process.

3.2.1. Dark Sides of the Entrepreneurial Career

In

Table 7. Identified dark sides of pursuing the entrepreneurial career.

Unfriendly legal regulations and institutional ecosystem

High subjective level of uncertainty

Financial aspects

Heavy job demands and pressure

Family and personal life

Loneliness and the necessity to rely on oneself

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

, the identified dark sides of an entrepreneurial career are listed. They are placed in order from the ones that were the most commonly appearing theme to the ones that were mentioned by a smaller number of the interviewed entrepreneurs. Their description and quotes that present their perception among research participants and provide more specific examples are provided in the subsequent paragraphs.

3.2.2. Unfriendly Legal Regulations and Institutional Ecosystem

One of the most commonly mentioned negative aspects of being an entrepreneur was the regulations introduced by lawmakers. They were perceived as unclear, continually changing, and unfriendly. Interlocutors often saw them as directed against entrepreneurs. It is visible in the words of one of the interviewees:

Relationships with authorities can be complicated. One of the problems is the multitude of unclear regulations in force, which are often systematically created, usually at a very fast pace, without the necessary consultation, without considering their effects (Interviewee no. 8).

At the same time, research participants often felt that there was a lack of sufficient knowledge among the officials who, according to several opinions, did not always have good intentions towards entrepreneurs or were unable to solve their doubts sufficiently:

The law may change. If, for example, you ask for an interpretation at the same office, two different officials can give you two different interpretations, and you don’t really know how to behave and what to do (Interviewee no. 4).

3.2.3. High Subjective Level of Uncertainty

Another dark side was related to the necessity to face a high level of subjective uncertainty. It was a theme that commonly emerged in the research data. This uncertainty was often associated with anxiety about the future, sometimes also in the short term, and the feeling that the company may stop being profitable:

I never know what the next month will be like. The month ends, and I reach a specific outcome. Then I just have to start all over again, because there are my plans, there is a desire to earn money and a fear that this may be the last good month (Interviewee no. 2).

Interestingly, for some of the entrepreneurs, this level of uncertainty was not reduced with time and the amount of experience they gained. For example, the above quote comes from an entrepreneur with over a decade of experience who has reached considerable success. Other interviewees highlighted, however, that as they gained experience, the uncertainty level dropped:

We also had some doubts at the beginning. Later it passed because then it goes somehow. It goes, it’s all sorted out more, and we know where, how, and what to do if things do not work, but at the beginning, there was actually a bit of fear because you really do not know (Interviewee no. 16).

3.2.4. Financial Aspects

Another group of the negative elements of being an entrepreneur identified in the research was related to the financial aspects of running a venture. Research participants often highlighted their regular financial liabilities, which were not necessarily balanced by sufficient revenues. One of the interviewees, an entrepreneur operating in the building industry, emphasized:

A company cannot operate from paycheck to paycheck but must have financial stock…. Costs have to be borne: leasing, rents, and other such things, so you need to have this buffer, and these are the things that are not told to nascent entrepreneurs. They are only told: ‘Open a business, it will be cool.’ A paid job is much safer in this respect (Interviewee no. 10).

Financial aspects of running a venture appeared to be one of the main possible dark sides that can easily trigger a company’s failure:

For example, I avoid the excessive fixed costs. I think that this is a big trap that is easy to fall into—leasing, loans—these fixed costs.… If it is not absolutely necessary, then it may turn out that it will be a heavy burden—signing long-term contracts for the lease of premises or car leasing. All this in a changing world can just lead a company to a failure (Interviewee no. 2).

In addition, entrepreneurs were likely to experience stress related to the financial risk they took. They were often thinking of the high stake, particularly if they were sole proprietors and their risk was unlimited:

There is a high financial risk, because, as I said before, every entrepreneur sets up a company to earn more, but that’s not always the case. One is not always successful. We know in full-time employment that the salary will arrive at the end of the month. Well, with our own business, there is a risk that we can fail, that we will not achieve the goal, or the customer will not pay, and so on… and there may simply be no money. So this financial risk is incomparably higher. Risk also for all the assets you own (Interviewee no. 14).

3.2.5. Heavy Job Demands and Pressure

The next group of dark sides related to running a venture emphasized by research participants involved heavy job demands. Several different aspects of this category appeared in the interviews. One of them was related to the necessity of working long hours and the frequent inability to take time off which could allow a person to rest:

Currently, for me, it is a constant drudgery. In the last three years, I have not had time for a longer holiday. There is just no such thing (Interviewee no. 3).

Additionally, several participants stated that the activity of entrepreneurs often lacked regularity. They needed to adjust to times when the workload was hefty, and, on the other hand, when there was very little to do. Both of these extremes were, however, associated with a significant stress level. One interviewee, who conducted pieces of training and offered translating services said:

This job is so irregular—work comes at irregular intervals. So there may be a lot of work to be done, and you do not know where to start. You stretch a day, and you do not sleep. For example, it happens that after conducting an all-day training, I do translations until late at night, and there are times when you don’t have work at all (Interviewee no. 11).

Among the darks sides belonging to this group was also the necessity to perform tasks that were difficult or at which participants did not feel competent enough. It included tasks related to the previously mentioned obligations imposed by the state. One of the former entrepreneurs who decided to close her business said:

For me, it was a burden felt all the time. Of course, filling in tax statements was a tragedy—I never managed to do it well the first time. And in the end, there were really no ups and downs. In the end, I was tired, discouraged, and very nervous…, and I closed [my company] with a great joy that this was the end (Interviewee no. 5).

3.2.6. Family and Personal Life

In the face of the findings mentioned above, it is not surprising that research participants indicated that their family and personal life were likely to suffer. It was highlighted by one interlocutor who said that sometimes one of the most commonly stated advantages of being self-employed, namely having the autonomy to decide about one’s working patterns was diminished:

On the one hand, we can subordinate, let’s say, working hours to private life and work in those times that suit us. But on the other hand, if there are any problems, like finding customers, or the customer is calling at the last moment, we really discover very quickly that it is quite the opposite. All personal life is subordinate to our business activity, especially if you take into account the competition and market prices. In fact, you have to work hard to make a living (Interviewee no. 7).

In addition, research has shown that it was sometimes difficult for participants to deal with the conflicting demands that they experienced. They were aware that they could take a decision to devote more time to family or personal development, but pursuing an entrepreneurial career made this choice difficult. One of the participants said:

If you don’t set a clear line, you can burn out easily. Earlier I was aware of this, but then I experienced that you have to fight for your personal development, and it is a fight with yourself. I mean here the time you spend on something else than just the work you do (Interviewee no. 3).

3.2.7. Loneliness and the Necessity to Rely on Oneself

Another aspect identified in the research was the loneliness experienced by entrepreneurs. There were several dimensions to it. On the one hand, it was related to being self-employed and a limited number of opportunities to discuss different work aspects with colleagues. On the other, it also pertained to the perceived lack of systemic support. It was visible in a statement of one of the participants:

In my opinion, the system does not support small entrepreneurs. It means that you cannot count on getting some kind of advice or support, also when it comes to the merits. There is a very complicated legal system, regulations are widely interpreted, and you have to be careful about it (Interviewee no. 1).

The research also showed that sometimes entrepreneurs felt that their close relatives were not empathetic towards them, and apart from the challenges related to running a venture, they had to face their relatives’ lack of understanding:

Children and wife do not fully accept that one has to go to the company’s office in the evening, take part in an evening meeting, or even take a trip (Interviewee no. 13).

3.3. Research Findings

3.3.1. Coping with Dark Sides of the Entrepreneurial Career

During the conducted interviews, research participants described strategies used by them to cope with the negative aspects of the entrepreneurial career. It is important to highlight that some strategies can be seen as task-oriented, whereas others are, to a more considerable extent, emotion-oriented [57]. As they often require a set of specific competencies, and interviewees even directly indicated some of them, their development methods can be considered for the inclusion in entrepreneurial education. Identified strategies are presented in

Table 8. Identified strategies of coping with the dark side of the entrepreneurial career.

Strategic thinking and diversification

Cooperation with other companies and outsourcing tasks

Planning the budget

Developing work-life balance

Time management

Basing on individual interests and competencies

Accepting the dark side as a natural aspect of an entrepreneurial career

Source: Authors’ own elaboration.

.

3.3.2. Strategic Thinking and Diversification

One of the most commonly mentioned ways of dealing with the negative aspects of being an entrepreneur was strategic thinking. There was a variety of activities that fall within this category. They included planning, setting long-term goals, controlling their realization level, and analyzing competitors and customers. To a large extent, these elements can be seen as congruent with the causal model of entrepreneurship [58,59] under which an entrepreneur is focused on the identification of opportunities and their deliberate exploitation in a long-time linear process. Various elements of strategic thinking were visible in the following assertion of a study participant:

“Entrepreneurs” need to thoroughly consider what they want and what they do not want. That is, they need to set specific goals and be able to verify them in the short term and the long term. By this, I mean not to act thoughtlessly, but know what will indicate that one is developing, doing fine (Interviewee no. 1).

Elements of strategic planning were also described as a suitable method of coping with the dark sides of running a venture related to the financial aspects. An interlocutor who stated that in her industry, a high level of seasonal revenue fluctuations was present declared:

You need to know how to secure your functioning in terms of finance. You can do it by, for example, in the beginning, also having a full-time job, connecting business activities with working on some large order, or providing your services to a large entity that is stable (Interviewee no. 9).

Moreover, the diversification of the fields of business activity was presented as the way in which one may cope with the dark sides. For example, one of the entrepreneurs with more than ten years of experience presented it as a method that can be employed in the later stages of the company’s development:

In the beginning, one can focus on one thing they want to do, but after some time, you need to diversify. Well, you need to have in the back of your head that all can end at any moment. I knew many companies with one good contractor, and then suddenly, it was all over for the company (Interviewee no. 2).

3.3.3. Cooperation with Other Companies and Outsourcing Tasks

One of the themes that often appeared in interviewees’ answers pertained to the collaboration with other companies and outsourcing specific tasks, particularly those related to financial reporting and legal issues. As was previously stated, entrepreneurs described both of these issues as difficult, complicated, and taxing. They highlighted that the selection of the right business partner was a crucial success factor:

It is essential to use the services of a lawyer, and it is common knowledge that the cheapest lawyers are, in the end, most expensive. All contracts that one signs should be consulted with a lawyer. It is also essential to have a good accountant who keeps everything under control and can explain how to optimize taxes. All this will then go automatically and by itself, and when multiplied by the number of months, it really can bring a lot of savings (Interviewee no. 2).

The cooperation with other companies and building a network was also considered crucial for mitigating the negative aspects. On the one hand, it helps to deal with substantial challenges, including the highly variable amount of work, including the risk of not being able to deal with a current amount of orders. Nevertheless, it requires the ability to perceive other companies as competitors and as potential collaborators. This approach was mentioned by a research participant who provided educational activities for children:

It’s definitely worth to have acquaintances in that sense that you have someone from a similar industry or field to go to, someone who is in a similar situation. I cooperate with two companies of the same profile. Although we are competitors, we also support each other. For example, when teachers get sick, we share resources and look for substitutions. So networking is a good practice— to create a network, have such a support (Interviewee no. 4).

On the other hand, collaboration with others was also presented as a source of possible professional and psychological support, facilitating effective knowledge sharing and reducing the cost of obtaining professional information. The latter was particularly crucial for any company operating in the environment of fast-paced legal and institutional changes:

Our company belongs to the local employers’ association. Before this pandemic, we would meet quite often—every two to three months. Experts familiarized us with the latest changes regarding entrepreneurship, employment, legal and economic regulations (Interviewee no. 15).

3.3.4. Planning the Budget

The majority of research participants highlighted the importance of planning the budget. It appeared as an element that was of great importance and, at the same time, one that was often underrated by nascent entrepreneurs. It is visible in the following answer provided by one of the interlocutors:

You need to put a great emphasis on finance. Simply know how to calculate, plan finances, arrange a business plan: how high the costs can be, and how much revenue something can bring, and how much money will be left there. Because I think that many entrepreneurs trying to start a business are making a lot of mistakes, and they are not observing their finances. They don’t know when money is running low and get into debt, loans, and so on (Interviewee no. 14).

3.3.5. Developing Work-Life Balance

Developing a work-life balance was a crucial aspect mentioned by interviewees as a way of coping with virtually all identified dark sides. Researchers’ observations were that, quite often, participants highlighted its importance while describing it on a general level, and rarely provided specific examples of methods in which it can be achieved. Some of the research participants admitted that they were not particularly competent in this area:

Researcher: “What is the good practice of coping with the heavy workload that you previously mentioned?”

Interviewee: “There certainly are some, but I’m not the kind of person who could ever deal with it, who was good at it. I never succeeded in that. It certainly helps if you like what you do because then you don’t mind and you do these things. I will not say that it was always a pleasure, but once you start and get absorbed by what you do, you forget that it is 10 p.m. on Tuesday, and somehow it goes. But I am not the right person to ask because I could not cope with it” (Interviewee no. 5).

Few interviewees mentioned specific methods employed by them, including elements as common as having a hobby or the importance of “becoming lazy sometimes.” One person illustrated how planning family activities upfront, similarly, to planning business activities, may be helpful in this issue:

Together with my husband, we very often just sit down and schedule a time for ourselves, so that our life does not only revolve around professional obligations…. At first, we do it together, and only then do we check what time is available for our professional commitments. I think it works out well—these life priorities, family values. Of course, money and our professional aspirations are important, but our emotional aspirations are, after all, first (Interviewee no. 2).

3.3.6. Time Management

Another category of strategies that can be identified in the data obtained from the interviews pertains to time management. Study participants emphasized the importance of not only being prepared for working long hours, and working intensively, but also the significance of managing one’s activities wisely. They mentioned prioritizing tasks, planning them upfront, and allocating a sufficient amount of time, which was sometimes presented as the most valuable resource for an entrepreneur. One of the participants summarized the importance of time management for entrepreneurs in the following way:

First of all, you need to keep a calendar, you need to plan your time, you need to be aware of the tasks that await you, the dates when these tasks must be completed. You need to be aware that certain tasks can pile up and that leaving everything to the last minute is definitely a disastrous practice (Interviewee no. 8).

3.3.7. Basing on Individual Interests and Competencies

Pursuing an entrepreneurial career was seen by participants as demanding. The general picture which appeared in the interviews presents it as having the potential to bring material and non-material rewards, but at the same time, including unavoidable downsides. Apart from the already mentioned, another possible way of mitigating the latter was related to the congruence between one’s area of activity and individual interests, characteristics, and competencies. Interviewees mentioned all of them, sometimes referring to the more stable personality characteristics and sometimes to specific passions or trained abilities. This finding is congruent with predictions of person-environment fit models [60]. An example comes from an interlocutor who described the importance of recognizing and following one’s passion:

To every girl or boy who thinks of becoming an entrepreneur, I would say this: Start from what you cannot stop doing. Is there anything in your life that you instinctively want to do all the time?… Select two or three things that are your passion and then try to think: Can I do something with my passion in my life? In the beginning, it might be training, in the second stage start of a career, and in the third stage becoming an entrepreneur in an area you are highly passionate about (Interviewee no. 12).

3.3.8. Accepting the Dark Side as a Natural Aspect of an Entrepreneurial Career

The last element discovered in the research and pertaining to dealing with the dark sides included emotion-oriented strategies. It involved not trying to actively mitigate the negative aspects of the entrepreneurial career by diminishing them or employing specific countermeasures, but instead accepting their existence. This strategy can be useful in the case of dark sides that are mostly, or even entirely beyond personal control. The ability to simply abide them may be helpful in terms of allowing entrepreneurs to focus on other activities that may be more beneficial. An interviewee whose business activities were characterized by a high seasonality level said:

You can develop your personal potential, a metaphysical perspective, the understanding that the world is unpredictable, and you have to deal with it and accept this unpredictability. It is one thing, speaking a bit jokingly, but in fact, you really have to deal with such a feeling, build a resistance to deal with those periods when there is simply less work. You have to uphold this tension. It is essential to simply get accustomed to the situation, to its psychological aspects (Interviewee no. 9).

4. Discussion

Obtained findings indicate that students perceive the investigated negative aspects of running one’s venture as quite important (acquired means were higher than the middle of the Likert scale in the case of all of them). They also see the financial aspects and risks as more significant than those related to work-life balance. These results indicate that young people, for whom starting an own venture is a plausible option in the near future, see the possible dangers of this choice. Thus, our recommendation is to, first of all, make sure that a considerable amount of attention is given to this issue during entrepreneurship courses. This practice’s objective would not be to discourage students from becoming entrepreneurs, but rather to help prepare for the likely adversities and develop the necessary resilience. The met expectation model offers a proposition that presenting this realistic perspective can facilitate problem-focused and emotion-focused coping. The former may be achieved by, inter alia, adding context to the delivered content. In the experience of the article’s authors, students often may display a tendency to perceive information and activities offered during classes as “theoretical” (in the common understanding of this word, i.e., not related to reality), and not particularly useful. Presenting knowledge, attitudes, and competencies developed during entrepreneurship courses as a resource that mitigates particular risks stemming from the drawbacks of being an entrepreneur, can help make such courses more effective. In addition, as was stated in the previous section describing entrepreneurial education, increasing its effectiveness requires a significant number of experiences related to the “real world” and conditions in which entrepreneurs operate. Discussing a small business owner’s strategies of dealing with the identified dark sides may be more beneficial than presenting the idealized example of, for example, Abraham Lincoln.

We found that graduate students perceived both kinds of negative aspects (i.e., related to finance and related to work-life balance) as more critical. We cautiously offer a hypothetical explanation that it may be a reason of having often greater professional (yet still just initial) experience, or the fact that, in their case, starting a professional career is more imminent (in the region where the study was conducted, it is very common for students to start the second cycle of study right after graduating from the first one, and study and work during the graduate studies). Additionally, the investigated drawbacks were, in general, perceived as more severe by female participants. These results may be considered as a call to put a greater emphasis on dealing with dark sides in educational practices that are either offered or directed to these groups. If we consider promoting entrepreneurship and developing an entrepreneurial attitude as one of the objectives of entrepreneurship education, we may refer to psychological models of persuasion. It has been demonstrated that two-sided persuasion (which acknowledges the negative aspects of the presented option) is often more effective when people have doubts or have a deeper understanding of an issue [61]. Additionally, such educational practices can involve case studies of role models similar to students from groups that perceive the dark sides as more severe and be focused on displaying the possible coping strategies.

The qualitative study allowed to identify a number of dark sides experienced by entrepreneurs. In the case of some study participants, they were severe enough to contribute to their business termination and changing their career path to having a paid job. At the same time, most study participants did not perceive the negative aspects of the entrepreneurial career as predominating over its advantages. One of the reasons behind this were the coping strategies, also identified in the current research. A practical application of the study findings would be the inclusion of coping strategies into entrepreneurship education and a critical investigation of current practices and their effects concerning them. It might be particularly important as some of the obtained results pertain to activities and competencies that may not be a non-obvious solution for a person designing an entrepreneurship course (e.g., elements of time management or deciding not to cope actively with a given dark side). We would like to emphasize that students’ acceptance of such a course’s content and their learning motivation can be much higher if they perceive it as helpful in solving specific, well-defined problems. Several mature entrepreneurs who took part in the current study and previously had undergone business education indicated the insufficient connection between university courses and their actual activities performed in the role of a business owner. On the one hand, not surprisingly, they mentioned the discrepancy between theory and practice, but also the lack of consciousness about how the university course learning content can be used on an everyday basis.

The final aspect that is worth mentioning and should, in our opinion, be considered important by entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship educators, is a general conclusion from the qualitative research that the positive aspects of pursuing the entrepreneurial career cannot be taken for granted. In fact, in our study, they appeared somewhat contingent on the ability to cope with the negative aspects. This theme repeatedly appeared in the conducted interviews. A significant level of independence can turn into a feeling that all customers are one’s supervisors who additionally have conflicting demands, the ability to choose working hours, and have a flexible schedule which can turn into working constantly and without rest. Following one’s passion can turn into burnout, and a decision to become an entrepreneur in order to perform what a person chooses to can turn into spending long hours on activities that are tedious and taxing but required due to legal regulations. Future and nascent entrepreneurs should finish entrepreneurship courses having both: awareness of such risks, and the knowledge and competencies regarding strategies they can employ to deal with them. We also hope that described research findings can be a source of ideas for further research on still under investigated dark sides of being an entrepreneur.

Finally, we would like to address the issue of the generalizability of the current study and its findings. The student sample included young people from the north of Poland, and thus, obtained results are mostly applicable to this group. However, in our opinion, as the aspects investigated in the quantitative study were quite universal, and based on the previous literature review that included theoretical propositions and empirical findings, they should likewise pertain to other potential entrepreneurs in Poland. The relative importance of the investigated elements may vary among different groups of people. Still, Poland is a fairly uniform country in terms of ethnicity, religion, or the higher education enrollment rate. Additionally, all entrepreneurs in Poland operate under the same legal regulations, which affect the existence and relative importance of the verified dark sides. The negative aspects indicated by entrepreneurs may also be, at least to an extent, more universal. In particular, elements related to the legal regulations and the entrepreneurial ecosystem can cautiously be proposed to be an essential issue in countries where the notion of supporting entrepreneurs has been developed only recently (e.g., post-communist European countries). The corroboration of this statement comes from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2019/2020 Global Report. Expert rankings of government policies regarding taxes and bureaucracy are rather low in the countries representing this region [62]. Stress and the feeling of loneliness among entrepreneurs have previously been described by scholars from different parts of the world mentioned in the theoretical part of the current article. Nevertheless, different ways of dealing with these negative aspects may be culturally determined. At this point, the elements discovered in the current study cannot be claimed to be universal. We hope that investigating their prevalence can be an exciting avenue for future research.