Some entrepreneurs thrive on the grueling work of building a business from ground up. Starting a successful company, then passing it on to capable hands while they search for yet another winning idea, is quite simply their raison d'etre. Kamran Elahian has founded some half dozen high-tech companies, earning the label of serial entrepreneur. How does he do it? What drives him? What makes each experience unique? How can one see an idea to fruition?

Wearing his entrepreneurial hat, Kamran explains:

To be a successful entrepreneur you must believe passionately in what you're doing, be persistent, have clarity of thought, and be unafraid of change. As an entrepreneur you must learn to roll with the punches. There is a close bond between you and the team and you stick it out together regardless of the results. No school can really prepare you for the thrill and the dangers of founding a company. At business schools they teach you a lot about planning and tell you if you plan it right it will work. Planning helps organize your thoughts, identify the loopholes and optimize based on your knowledge, but in reality that only takes you through the first few stages. Take successful Generals. They do not sit around for years planning every detail. They do some high-level planning, then send their scouts out to do some reconnaissance and figure out the lay of the land. Then they re-plan, move forward to the next outpost and once again send their scouts into the 
field. Similarly, you have to regroup at each stage of a start-up's lifecycle.

The following companies have been co-founded
by Kamran:

CAE Systems, Inc.
Cirrus Logic, Inc.
Momenta Corporation
NeoMagic Corporation
PlanetWeb, Inc.
Centillium Communications, Inc.
Actelis Networks, Inc.
Global Catalyst Partners
Informative
Entopia
Greenfield Networks