Opinions. Everybody's got one and we know what they're worth. Although at times they can be very insightful. But that's not what I'm talking about. What I am talking about is honest-to-goodness healthy criticism. So many times designers, art directors, even writers can't handle the truth. And I don’t care who you are or what your title is, you are not above constructive criticism.
Now maybe this comes easier for some of us who may have gone to art schools or various advertising programs where we really had our ideas/concepts shat upon, chewed up and spit out at our feet. Whether it was from a competitive fellow student who simply hated you and anything you did, or that instructor who knew you had "it" and wanted you to push it, push it real good. Or, maybe, you're just not a crybaby and understand that there's almost always room for improvement.
No matter how you received the bad news or who was dishing it out, over time you developed a thick skin. You had to. Did it hurt the first time? Yeah, probably. Did you cry a little? Yeah, maybe. But you know what else—you learned from it. Because you did push it further. And more than likely you made it better. Stronger. Smarter. And isn't that all we're trying to do anyway? So sometimes you have to kill your baby and conceive another one. Except this time it will be a bionic baby that will destroy and annihilate all other ads, headlines, logos, copy and websites in its path.