My sense of worth comes from looking for and finding the good in the people I meet. I travel a great deal, probably more than 100k miles a year. Some of the people I meet rub me the wrong way on our first meeting. As soon as possible, I engage them in conversation or through an interpreter. I ask about their family, children, where the went to school, and what interests them. In the majority of cases we find common ground and see eachother in a different, better light. The gratification in this coupled with a job well done makes me feel great and worthy of the occasional complement that I receive.
Of course there is a downside. Sometimes I meet a completely reprehensible character. The downer from that lost person is as low as the previous experience is high. Fortunately those people are few and far between.