[evanhanson]

A wise man once said "Don't try to be a great man; just be a man, and let history make its own judgments."

The reason _why (used as an example in the article) has the cult-like following he does is that he made fun, interesting things, not because he marketed himself or gamed the social system around him. Sure, a bit of self-promotion is often a good thing, but if you're expending lots of energy on making yourself into an icon, you've got less use actually earning such a status.