I think something you're missing in sweet and jerry's success stories is that they brought followers from outside of the platform. People were already familiar with who they are so they just amplified that success through steemit.

I would like to see a success story where someone starts with 0 followers and earns each one organically. After almost 3 months I am just approaching the 500 follower mark, and maybe 5 of them upvote my content.