The purpose of this paper is to measure entrepreneurial intentions with a clear timeframe for the intended behavior, thus going beyond a measure of attitude. The main focus is on those who refuse the idea of becoming entrepreneurs, and to understand the reasons for this refusal, something literature has ignored so far. Samples were collected in 2008 and2018allowing for a study on the progress and therefore revealing the results of the effort put in entrepreneurship education. Our data shows that a) trusting one’s own skills, b) valuing own job creation, c) valuing being one’s own boss and d) valuing the independence associated with being an entrepreneur, all contribute to student’s willingness to become entrepreneurs. The results provide some important lessons for entrepreneurship education programs, because individuals who refuse: • are less motivated to career factors and more worried about life quality aspects than would-be entrepreneurs. • see more obstacles to creating startups than would-be entrepreneurs. • trust less in their entrepreneurial skills than would-be entrepreneurs. Implications for theory and practice are proposed, as these results can be used to improve entrepreneurship education. This new view on potential entrepreneurs’ individual choices is presented as an advancement to the theory and to the present understanding of entrepreneurship.