The Mutual Admiration Society

Law # 1 of social living (from the Asocial's Guide to Social Living)

How are people icons created? It is possible but rare that one individual touches many, many people meaningfully. It happened with the saints and gods, and maybe kings and leaders to some extent. But how can it happen with individuals in this day and age who do not really touch our lives in a meaningful way? Cricketers, movie stars, musicians - they are all entertainers who make our lives happy for a while but do not really add value or meaning, do not provide us with any guidance for the future.

Funnier still is icons in your small individual communities - the school captain, the team leader, a CEO of a corporation. I can understand if share holders continually praise a CEO who has made many of them great wealth, but that still does not make him or her an icon.
So the answer lies in our own human need to be compliant, non-controversial, with-it, part of the inner circle. Two people say they like some individual, the next person seeks acceptance with the first two hence agrees, and from then on it is a cascade. The challenger who seeks to disagree is promptly branded as a mutant and discarded. Soon the mutant too falls in line simply to satisfy his basic need for acceptance in a social group.

An icon has been created.

Do not stop admiring people. But admire them for yourself and not for others. Do not justify your admiration. Do not challenge someone else's admiration. It is not a topic for debate.

Like charity, do not advertise your admiration, except maybe to the target of the admiration, and then too discreetly.