I once got quite a lot of headwind from a child friend of mine, because I had a business idea. At that time I was struggling and looking for a job and I had thought of a concept for self-employment. The girlfriend trampled my idea to the ground and I felt ridiculous afterwards and like a child who had expressed a deeply stupid idea.

What do you want me to say? She did me a huge favor. Without thinking too much about it, I dropped the idea. For in fact it had not withstood. Because the best test there is to test an idea is to tell it to people who don't confirm you. Making you small and shaking you up. If they can do this, your idea isn't strong enough. You can still be grateful to them because they're your jury. They may not have your welfare in mind, nor like you very much. This is valuable in that you cannot bribe them and they are not dependent on you. They don't care about your confirmation. So to be careful, I don't find the right expression. One can very well be offended and yet listen to the judgment of another. Then you have to admit to yourself that your own supposed enthusiasm and conviction was not really authentic after all. The other thing is that if you let a criticism throw you into the fenugreek, it is one that you basically agree with and actually feel the same way.

Every reflection and everything that people react to can be seen as a learning experience.

But I would like to correct you insofar as I think that it has a connotation that those friends might be bad people or not worth spending time with. Maybe, when one gives the same service to them a relationship might change ...