Few people can deny that being so self-righteous that other people get provoked is one hell of a personal marketing strategy. I just keep wondering if the people who succeed in personal branding have thought this out and planned their self-righteousness strategically, or if they just are that way naturally and got lucky.
Your personality is just a strategy that was devised by your two-year-old self in order to keep you safe and get attention: http://vimeo.com/16260822
That said, once you're an adult and you no longer rely on others for safety, you get to start over and make whatever changes you want. Obviously if you want to be famous then you need to choose live a life and adopt a personality that will make you famous. The whole package isn't especially natural or fun for anyone, but some people naturally have bits and pieces of their private persona that also work well in public if you ham them up a bit.
It's like Richard Branson. Do you think that Richard Branson wants to fly to tahiti to go rock climbing every weekend? Of course not. Some weekends he'd much rather curl up with a pot of tea and read the newspaper. But he can't, because he's Richard Branson and that's not what Richard Branson would do. Does he enjoy being Richard Branson? I'm sure there are things he likes about it, but most likely his personality was only really developed after he made a bunch of money to spend on personal coaching and stuff.
...And now I've got another hour of lecture in my 'to watch' queue.
Different people have different schtick. Why do you think that Bill Gates has a 12-year-old autistic kid do his powerpoints instead of hiring Nancy Duarte or whoever?
There are a lot of forces that influence what personalities will resonate with people, but one of them is that people tend to like stuff that's masturbatory. That is, things that make themselves feel like they could be successful doing what they're already doing. That's why for every life choice you could conceivably make, no matter how stupid, there is some incredibly successful person who has made it. There has to be, the market demands it, and if there wasn't then the market would anoint someone. Hence cheech & chong, william s. burroughs, ann coulter, etc.