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.