Miller credits his contemporary, Alan Moore (*Watchmen*), for making him a better creator. Knowing Moore was producing groundbreaking work at the same time forced Miller to push his own boundaries, especially as a writer, demonstrating the powerful, positive impact of having a high-caliber rival.

To handle constant rejection, mentalist Oz Perlman created a separate professional persona. When a trick was rejected, it was "Oz the magician" who failed, not Oz Perlman the person. This emotional distancing prevents personalizing failure and builds resilience, a crucial skill for any public-facing role.

Helms describes his early stand-up days where fellow comedians would high-five him after a failed set. This community support reframed failure not as a personal defeat but as a necessary, shared rite of passage, effectively building toughness and forging strong bonds.

When a client offers harsh, fundamental criticism during a pitch, the best response is not to defend the work but to acknowledge the miss. One CEO won a pitch by immediately conceding the point and offering to re-pitch, demonstrating humility and confidence.

Instead of finishing one page at a time, Miller revolutionized his workflow by batching tasks: all layouts, then all pencils, then all inks. This seemingly rigid, assembly-line process sped up production and, counterintuitively, resulted in more spontaneous and fluid final line work.

A fellow artist suggested Miller try a new workflow: lay in all the black shapes and areas on the page *before* adding any line work. This inverted process was the key to *Sin City's* minimalist, high-contrast style, as Miller realized he could convey more with negative space and fewer lines.

Miller applies liquid frisket (a type of glue) before inking, then wipes it away to reveal sparkling, unpredictable highlights. This intentional introduction of chaos adds a dynamic and organic quality to his meticulously crafted work, a technique applicable to any creative field seeking controlled randomness.

The disappointing reception of his experimental work *Ronin* was a "broken nose" for Miller. This failure forced him to analyze why the story didn't connect, leading him to develop the intensely structured, multi-act framework for his commercially successful follow-up, *The Dark Knight Returns*.

For short-term mentoring to be impactful, it must be painful. The goal isn't gentle guidance but to make an overlooked opportunity or flaw so painfully obvious that the mentee is jolted into action, partly to prove the mentor wrong. It's 'crash therapy'—uncomfortable but highly effective at driving change.