Uslan drove this point home with a perfect irony. After the first Batman movie shattered box-office records, he received a phone call from the very same United Artists executive who had years earlier told him he was 'out of his mind' and rejected Batman because the movie 'Robin and Marian' hadn't done well. Now the executive said: 'Michael, I'm just calling to congratulate you on Batman. I always said you were a visionary.' The lesson was clear — the same people who dismiss you on the way up will claim they believed in you all along once you succeed. The only reliable compass is your own belief in your work.