1: Learn to develop your own film  2: Learn to print your own
photos in the darkroom, or if you don't want to do that, get a
GOOD film scanner and learn to use it.  3: Practice. A lot.
Years of practice are needed to get really good. Its worth it.
Don't be stingy about film, waste a lot of it, its not really
waste, its practice and if you learn from your mistakes you will
get very good.  4: Learn to get perfect exposure every time, it
makes a big difference in your image quality. Either use an
incident meter like 2f/2f suggested or learn the zone system and
use a spotmeter.  5: The true speed of a black and white film is
not what is marked on the box. Different developers affect the
speed of the film, and you may need to use a lower or higher
speed if your light meter is not in agreement with the meter
used by the manufacturer to determine speed. Test your film.