Here’s a little secret about human psychology that you don’t often hear people talk about. Despite the fact that a person’s self-esteem is often a direct outgrowth of their achievements, it’s also surprisingly arbitrary. You can be a pile of human garbage with an ego as big as Donald Trump or the greatest person on earth and think you’re a complete loser. In other words, your image of yourself can be much more heavily influenced than most people realize by the input you get from the people around you. It’s kind of like that classic Twilight Zone episode, “Eye of the Beholder” where unseen doctors try to help a woman whose face is hidden from the viewers, although you’re assured that she’s hideously ugly. Then, we finally get the big reveal of everyone’s faces.