One of the hardest lessons to learn is the importance of ignoring what other people think about your research. It’s not that you shouldn’t be aware of their opinions. It’s more that you need to learn to trust your own instincts more.
The problems we work on in our lab are generally so outside of the norm that many people mislabel our work. Other people are simply confused about what we are doing.
I consider that a good thing. It means there is a good chance we are working on something that will actually be relevant in five or ten years.
I can’t speak for other fields, but I’ve learned a truism in my own field of research: If everybody understands what you are working on, you are probably working on the wrong thing.