{"id":3597,"date":"2025-07-08T15:58:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=3597"},"modified":"2025-07-08T15:58:59","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T15:58:59","slug":"entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\/","title":{"rendered":"Entrepreneurs Face Several Dangers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

While entrepreneurs\u2019 success stories get most of the publicity, the dangers they face are rarely talked-about elements of entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd<\/a> of the University of Notre Dame noted that professors, business-book authors, and other journalists often tout the benefits of entrepreneurship without talking about its downside: Entrepreneurs often struggle and fail, sometimes with bad consequences for themselves, their colleagues, their loved ones, and even society.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor quite a while, I\u2019ve been researching entrepreneurs losing their business and people working on projects at an entrepreneurial firm when those projects fail,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cThe dark side of entrepreneurship is the negative emotional and psychological costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe downside of entrepreneurship is the loss of your capital, your money, your personal finances,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s the destructive side\u2014we always assume that entrepreneurship is doing good for other people, but it may not be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere might be some people who are greedy and engage in entrepreneurship that has a net destruction of wealth, so that really actually harms the natural environment or harms other people in order to just benefit themselves, or they didn\u2019t mean to do it, but it just worked out that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opportunities exist in environments of uncertainty, so failure is going to be part of entrepreneurial endeavors. Entrepreneurs\u2014and the people writing about them\u2014should ask: What about the downside risk?<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says entrepreneurship is so good, and I do love entrepreneurship, but if we don\u2019t understand the dark side, then how do we help entrepreneurs overcome some of the challenges they face being an entrepreneur, particularly when entrepreneurs pursue opportunities,\u201d Shepherd said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be able to help entrepreneurs minimize the potential losses from their action and avoid destructive entrepreneurship,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t understand why and how some people destroy societal wealth or the environment, then how are we going to be able to stop them?\u201d<\/p>\n

Shepherd highlighted a key question: \u201cHow are we going to be able to educate entrepreneurs to make sure that they don\u2019t do that, and that they\u2019re productive, rather than destructive?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole stream of my research along those lines is to try and really understand the flip side of the coin, because if you don\u2019t understand the flip side, then you don\u2019t understand the coin completely,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher While entrepreneurs\u2019 success stories get most of the publicity, the dangers they face are rarely talked-about elements of entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the University of Notre Dame noted that professors, business-book authors, and other journalists often tout the benefits of entrepreneurship without talking about its downside: Entrepreneurs often […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,22,21,46],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-3597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotions","category-entrepreneurship","category-innovation","category-well-being"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEntrepreneurs Face Several Dangers - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Entrepreneurs Face Several Dangers\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T15:58:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":400,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/03\\\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"EMOTIONS\",\"ENTREPRENEURSHIP\",\"INNOVATION\",\"WELL-BEING\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/entrepreneurs-face-several-dangers\\\/\",\"name\":\"Entrepreneurs Face Several Dangers - 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You can reach him at dbutcher@aom.org or via LinkedIn.","sameAs":["https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/danielbutcher\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"}]}},"authors":[{"term_id":70,"user_id":4,"is_guest":0,"slug":"daniel-butcher","display_name":"Daniel Butcher","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp","url2x":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/DanButcher_Academy-of-Management.webp"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp",1000,720,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp",1000,720,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp",1000,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman-150x150.webp",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman-300x216.webp",300,216,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp",800,576,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp",1000,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman.webp",1000,720,false],"owl_elementor_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman-600x432.webp",600,432,true],"owl_elementor_team":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman-350x450.webp",350,450,true],"owl_elementor_testimonial":["https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/elephant-vs-businessman-100x100.webp",100,100,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Daniel Butcher","author_link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/author\/daniel-butcher\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/emotions\/\" rel=\"category tag\">EMOTIONS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/entrepreneurship\/\" rel=\"category tag\">ENTREPRENEURSHIP<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/innovation\/\" rel=\"category tag\">INNOVATION<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/category\/well-being\/\" rel=\"category tag\">WELL-BEING<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Daniel Butcher While entrepreneurs\u2019 success stories get most of the publicity, the dangers they face are rarely talked-about elements of entrepreneurship. Academy of Management Scholar Dean Shepherd of the University of Notre Dame noted that professors, business-book authors, and other journalists often tout the benefits of entrepreneurship without talking about its downside: Entrepreneurs often…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"sp_smart_badges","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sp_smart_badges?post=3597"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}