A friend of mine told me they bumped into a famous singer. It got me thinking that those people probably aren’t famous because they are exceptionally better at singing than other singers compared to say a woodworker who is exceptionally better than other woodworkers. They’re famous because music is famous and the woodworker isn’t because woodworking isn’t famous. It has nothing to do with their relative skill in their profession. That thought actually made me quite happy with the thought that I could’ve met many people at the apex of their skill and I would just never know.
On top of that even the most skillful singers in the world are most likely not the most famous. Becoming famous is a skill in itself, separate from the ability you’re famous for.
I think that for mid-levels of fame you can find a mixture of musical skill and self-marketing/entrepreneurship.
But as you go up the ladder of fame you get to the rungs where money is used to pay for an artist’s exposure. The artist becomes an investor’s asset and the “skill” of building fame arguably belongs to the investors / management team. And it is not so much skill as much as it is the power of capital to purchase attention.
It’s the same for every figurehead of every org, from politicians to CEO’s. They can make or break a campaign/project entirely on their own, but they can’t do any of it without team(s) of people supporting them, and often the team(s) supporting them are the determining factor in their entire success.
A best selling author probably isn’t the best writing one. Actually, when the back cover of a book has various praises like that, I consider them a red flag.
Many highly praised business books like that are actually just mostly trash and useless fluff. Good books don’t necessarily get much fame or popularity.