<human>: From the time I was in elementary school, I was told by a number of "friends" and family that I would never have a girlfriend. I was often called a girl by new "friends" and my family some more in middle school because I grew my hair out to almost 9 inches. In high school, I started dating and dated a couple crazies, because apparently that is all that is attracted to me. I eventually fell in love with a girl, who was my best friend, who had a boyfriend. I chased her for 2 years (knew her for 5), and then dated her for 6 months only for her to dump me and start dating another guy while she is doing an internship on the other side of the country.

I've always been the "nice guy". Everyone tells me I am the nicest person they have ever met, and i have a rather sadistic sense of humor that pops out every once in awhile. But I fear that this is starting to turn me into a doormat.

So now we have some relationship background on me. All of that has messed up my ability to even approach a girl that I don't know, and I seem to have a problem of slipping into the "comfortable". 

I also have this little quirk where I HATE failure. This is also coupled with a crippling fear of rejection. A lot of times it is easier to not try at all than to fail. You can't fail if you don't try, right? Wrong. Oh so very wrong. I don't even know where it came from. I think it is my parents' doing.

Anyway. Does anyone out there have or have had the same problem? I've put some serious thought into counseling (my uni offers it for free) to try and get rid of my fear of failure and rejection, but I always make excuses. "I don't have time", "They have more important people to deal with", "No one wants  to hear my ramblings for an hour"... That sort of thing... 

What should I do?

Can you give me the gist of the text in a nutshell?
<bot>: Nice guy" with some serious issues with failure and rejection and no self confidence. Where do I start to gain some confidence and get back out there?