Agreed. A person who has unnaturally high self esteem will be more surprised by failure than someone with moderate or low self esteem. Losing a job, going through a failed relationship, flunking out of school, or any number of other personal "failures" may be that much more devestating to a person who places unwarranted expectations of success on themselves.
If you need this codified in the modern US media cycle, just take a look at the Corey Feldman / Today Show situation. He was terrible on appearance #1, the internet let him know (as it does, both in tempered and vicious ways) and he claimed he was being bullied, then came back and did appearance #2 which was even musically worse than the first one. Then he thanks everybody for the support, rather than pay attention to the valid criticism that he has not made a bit of improvement since his Howard Stern performance in 1992.
Calling a terrible work product terrible isn't bullying.
The man is 45 years old now. He's not a child anymore so it's reasonable to stop treating him with child gloves, or, to the point, coddling his self-esteem.