I think you might have already seen this, but I'm gonna share it for everyone else too.
"Even if you believe in yourself, you can still be a total shit."
A translation of a Finnish proverb, it doesn't work as well in English, but you get the point. Even if you think you have done an amazing job, worked hard and you believe you should reap insane rewards for it, it doesn't mean that everyone else thinks so.
I think what a lot of millennial lack, is self reflections and healthy comparing to others. You also have to understand the environment and the medium you are working in. For example: my photography does well in this little format in Steemit, but if I was trying to get National Geography to buy them, they would laugh at my efforts.
I read it, you said a few days ago in a rant of yours iirc and I couldn´t agree more. I heard this very same phrase - or at least the bottom line of it - a few months ago in a series, it went something like "sometimes you can play at your best level and make no mistakes, and you are still going to lose the game".
Exactly, our parents told us to aim for the stars and well, sometimes aiming that high will only bring disappointment. Not everyone can reach the stars - otherwise they wouldn´t be a goal. Yes, we have to be ambitious but also we have to be realists.
It's a cute saying, but it was totally irrelevant where you used it. The issue was self upvoting of comments, not complaining about getting rewards.