It is true, that many parents/ friends will put you down and when repeated enough times, it will deflate your ego, and so you stop trying as you lose self confidence in yourself. Just say your older bro/sister gets A's in school and you get C's, then your parents tell not only you but your older bro/sister, you must be dumb and they must be brainier then you, that hurts a lot. You may be the brainier, but have a teacher whom can't explain or teach the right way, so you are classed dumb! Not everyone learns the same way and many people teach things in a different way. An example, my sister, whom is computer illiterate, went to beginner classes to learn how to operate a computer. She failed badly. She bought books to teach her, failed again. I then had a go, I took my time and got her to do simple things. Not long after, she cottoned to the the simple things, then advanced a bit more. She is still learning, but advancing to this day. It's the same with someone saying, gee, I think I will rent a shop and start a buisness, so they tell their friends and family of their dreams. Immediately, some of them say, why, what do you want to do that for, do you know how hard it is to do this or that, are you nuts??? Others, will say, do you know anything about opening a store, why not do a few courses in book keeping etc, rules and regulations etc, then decide! Then other will say, nah that will fail and you will go broke etc. So some will say your nuts, as they themselves are not prepared to branch out and/or take a risk to better them selves. Others will try to caution you, that if you do go through with it, you will know something in advance to guide you, should you go ahead, and others, are jealous, that should you succeed, you will be better off then they are. To turn things around, go slow, think things through and only if you are happy in the end, give it a go. If you do fail, at least you had the currage to give it a go and try. Then the next time you try it again, you will have learnt from past mistakes, you may fail again, but each time you try again, you already know and learn from past mistakes. Hope this helps.