10 Things Every Startup Founder Should Know

These 10 tips could prevent your startup from facing certain doom.

"You can go it alone for a while, but eventually team is everything," advises Scott Bell, CEO of the wealth management firm

. Second, Bell told Benzinga that you should "read James Altucher's

. And then subscribe to his blog. The man is an experienced entrepreneur, investor, and author [who is] honest, smart, [and] funny. He's 100% genuine. And I know this, unquestionably, solely from reading his body of work." Bell also recommends that aspiring entrepreneurs read the work of

. "Then read everything in the MBA Mondays section of

and Mark Suster's

. I am, and I feel smarter for it." "If you're married with kids like me, you're going to need to have frequent talks with your family about why your entrepreneurial efforts take so much of your time, money, and attention," adds Bell, who founded Gross Domestic Product, Inc. (the parent company of MyGDP) on July 25, 2008. "A new business or startup really is a child in the family and if everyone isn't onboard with the sacrifices it will take to raise that child, you'll be a single parent/entrepreneur eventually." Fifth, Bell said that people always come first. "Always," he insists. "If you screw up, make it right, as fast and as best as you can. Sometimes it will still not be enough." But don't think that putting people first is all that matters. "If you're doing it for the money, you'll always be underpaid," Bell warned, adding that all entrepreneurs should learn to code. "At the very least, it's imperative you understand the structure and logic of programming -- it is the language of the new world." "If this is your first entrepreneurial effort, tell everyone your ideas constantly," Bell recommends. "No one is going to steal them. Embrace everyone telling you why your idea won't work. Many will be right, which amounts to free advice about how to fix problems you didn't know existed." Ninth, Bell said that even if you fail you still win because you tried. "No one can take that from you," he said, directing us to the

. "If you have the stomach, fail again. And then again. That's what a successful entrepreneur does better than most. Learn to fail fast and often without letting it derail your forward progress." Finally, Bell said that you should "write down everything that you want on your tombstone or to be remembered for" and "iterate often."