Elahian was less confident about his own journey home to a Silicon Valley community that had witnessed Momenta's very public crash. But he learned that sometimes, nothing succeeds like failure.

His return from exile began when he was approached by Prakash Agarwal, then a general manager at Cirrus Logic. Agarwal was leaving Cirrus to launch a multimedia-accelerator chip company called NeoMagic Corp. that would design modules for notebook computers. He asked Elahian to lead the company. Elahian agreed, on the condition that he would be chairman -- not CEO.

Getting back into business after the Momenta disaster was easier than Elahian thought it would be. Investment firms knew that he had scored two successes. Now, with that one big failure, he was a survivor. Betting that his chances for winning were much improved, blue-chip firms -- Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital U.S. Venture Partners -- rushed to back him.

NeoMagic was a runaway success. Sony signed on to equip all of its VAIO notebook computers with NeoMagic's chips.

The startup went on to have its chips placed in 70% to 90% of Dell's and IBM's laptops. Within four years of its founding, NeoMagic received an IPO valuation of more than $300 million.

As Elahian looks to the future and considers his next move, he remembers the hard-won lessons from his past. The lesson from CAE Systems: Don't let fear or ignorance stop you from taking a risk that feels right. From Cirrus: Success depends on constantly evaluating your performance and choosing a role that plays well to your strengths. And from Momenta: Failure happens. What counts is how you react when it all goes bad.

Failure put Elahian on the road to a more meaningful life, and he has chosen to celebrate his greatest debacle. It's even stamped across the license plate that fronts his Ferrari: Momenta. "I get a dose of humility every time I get in my car," he says. "But that license plate also reminds me never to back down. You might lose, but you're only a loser if you don't try again."

Bill Breen (bbreen@fastcompany.com) is a Fast Company senior editor. Contact Kamran Elahian by email (kamran@gc-partners.com).

Sidebar: 5 Ways to Start Fresh

How do you better the odds that you'll succeed at a new start? Serial entrepreneur Kamran Elahian has made a life out of starting over. Here are his hard-won lessons for starting fresh -- and starting smart.

1. Write a mission statement. You'll never do work that matters unless you define what matters. Elahian gave himself a sense of purpose by writing a mission statement for his life. He succinctly outlined his big-picture goals. Then he mapped out how he would get there.
2. Don't look back. Once you embark on a new venture, put all of your focus on the future. Second-guessing only slows you down.
3. Be your own biggest critic. Relentlessly (and ruthlessly) evaluate your performance, paying special attention to your weaknesses. Only then can you shift your course of action so it plays to your strengths.
4. Celebrate your setbacks. Or at the very least, learn from them. If you don't analyze what went wrong and what you'd do differently, then you'll repeat the same mistake.
5. Lose like a winner. Failing doesn't mean that you're a failure. Pete Sampras is one of the greatest tennis players of all time, but he has lost many times. In business as well as in life, the only unforgivable sin is never trying in the first place.