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Truly, we all have a gem inside us. A treasure only us can dig out, and to bring it out, we need to do some digging. Having a deep reflection time of who we are and what we truly crave.

We all have it, deep inside no matter what, we all want to be liked by people with reasons known to us. And I do agree with the reasons you've stated, especially this;

I’m scared of people not seeing my true value and not paying me for what I’m worth.

We are all humans with unexplainable feelings sometimes. However, this can be explained. Imagine putting your all into something, and then someone sees it and just "meh" it. It will hurt. Also, working in a company and doing everything you can to make the company the best and not being paid for what you do even when you know if you are worth more than what they pay, you really sucks.

Someone who likes you won't hurt you in these scenarios because they see and understand the effort you've put into things you do.

Digging into one’s self takes a lot and I have got to realize that the weak ones usually back off. When you dig into yourself, you tend to realize or get to know so many new things about yourself and you’d be shocked
So many people would not like it and that’s why they usually back off. Truly, there is always a hidden gem inside of us. We just have find that gem in us