I often choose to step away from some people and keep a respectable distance with them. The reason for me to be away was either "They have too many things going on in their life. They might not be the best option to work with." or a lot of other reasons during the selection.
The strange thing is I found that even I chose to step away, a lot of them would choose to stick around and keep coming back to me. I couldn't comprehend this.
But one of them said this in public as well as to me recently, "My wife was jealous that I keep coming back and hang out with this girl and couldn't understand. I explained to her this girl has this and that. She is particularly inspiring. Even we don't talk much, I still want to be around her because she always motivates me to do better. I saw fire on her."
Sure, this definitely helps with my ego, but it also adds some pressure on me: it's almost like if I don't keep being hyper performant I will disappoint them.