Be with the ones you love (and the ones that love you.) Ignore everyone else.
You succeed because you've chosen to be confident. It's not really useful to require yourself to be successful before you're able to become confident.
The problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win
We're all born creative, it takes a little while to become afraid.
You can listen to what people say, sure. But you will be far more effective if you listen to what people do.
The enemy of fear is creativity.