Here's some things that i've learned over the years through many very challenging experiences:
All that essentially matters is what you think of yourself. It's always your choice of whether or not to allow what other people think of you to affect what you think about yourself.
When we allow our happiness and sense of joy to be dependent on other people, we are setting ourselves up for eventual disappointment and frustration, to the degree that we've allowed this to happen... In other words, the more dependent you allow your love to be, the more you're setting yourself up for a fall. Currently however, i would say that the majority of people -- whether they realize it or not -- see dependency relationships as being healthy and desirable, because that's what they were indirectly taught by their family when growing up. They see a dependency relationship as being indicative of a loving relationship, because they have yet to experience otherwise.
A person's ego is fear-oriented by its very nature. It's the ego that cares what other people think of you, and yet you are so much more than just your ego. It's just that most people needlessly identify all of their sense of self with their ego, because that's what they were indirectly taught to do when growing up by those around them.
We are conditioned by our society to regulate our behavior based on imagining how others will react in response to our choices.
Here's a parable that has to do with all of this:
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The student approached the master and queried, "Master? When I was young, I desired for my family and loved ones to be proud of me. Were you ever the same way?"
"Yes," the master answered.
"Why did you desire this?" the student asked.
"So that they would feel they had more reason to love and accept me," said the master. "And the reason I desired this was so that I in turn would feel I had sufficient reason to love and accept myself. That was what was at the root of it. But then one day, I woke up and realized, 'What if I bypass all of that and learn to unconditionally love and accept myself, without requiring anyone else's love, acceptance or approval in order to feel good about myself? Then my happiness will no longer be dependent on outer circumstances, but will be as constant as my own heartbeat resounding strongly within my chest.' Thus began my quest for self-realization."
"And you never desired them to be proud of you after that?" asked the student.
"My ego did, but I no longer completely identified myself with my ego as I had. And I no longer cared what others thought in the same way. I respected it, and honored it, but no longer gave it so much weight or paid so much attention to it," the master replied, smiling. "And never had I felt so free, as when I finally released myself in this way..."