High confidence does NOT mean high self esteem!

A person who seem to be very high on confidence MAY have a low self esteem. On the other hand, person with high self esteem may not ooze with confidence. Self esteem is internal and confidence is just external.

One can show-off very high confidence while he/she internally fears terribly even about trivial matters. On the other hand, the person with high self esteem MAY NOT necessarily appear confident because of various reasons. However, I do believe that the self esteem ultimately prevails and the person indeed becomes extremely confident as maturity dawns.

It is hard to detect people with lower self esteem as it is disguised as they may appear very intelligent and confident and they don't speak their mind out.

The person with high self esteem typically has high integrity, does not fear laughing at oneself (or calling oneself a fool) in front of others.

The people with low self esteem may lack passion and appear selfish mainly because they internally feel insecure. They may do drugs etc in some cases.

In the relationship context, if one of the spouses has a low self-esteem and it is not detected by the other person in the EARLY stages, the relationship may not be fulfilling and can be really damaging. It is extremely difficult even for the person with higher self esteem to adjust because there is a tendency for him/her to drag (literally) the other person along into his/her passionate world and aspire to reach the sky while the person with low esteem silently cries for approval/acceptance on trivial matters ("trivial" is as perceived by the person with high self-esteem).

IF relationship is important, the person with high self-esteem must detect this and "deeply accept" the other person "as is" and build the self-esteem by operating from the heart (keeping the "mind" aside) and praising/approving/accepting any and every trivial success. For ones own gratification, the person with high self-esteem must be independent in his/her endeavors (without expecting the spouse to support every step of the way) so that the passion in him/her is alive.