According to a recent Industry Standard article, the highly successful entrepreneur John Peters, now CEO of broadband service provider Sigma Networks, characterizes himself as a “serial entrepreneur” who tends to spend about four years on each of his startups. “I just thrive on the uncertainty, the challenge and the creativity of starting a company. I like the blank piece of paper.”

It’s no surprise that Peters, and other entrepreneurs like him, crave new beginnings, risk and change. Indeed, those characteristics almost define the breed. But according to a paper by Vipin Gupta , management professor at Fordham, and Ian C. MacMillan , director of Wharton’s Sol C.…