Dude what made them become so famous was their charisma...case closed.
Honestly what the fuck do you think makes people popular? A big dick? A beard? No, charisma. With charisma comes the know-how to play peoples fears and hatred to your own gain. Other than that they were your typical person with some perks and flaws that happened to work to their advantage or disadvantage. You can't call someone a psycho simply because they enforced their own belief on another person if so then christians were and still are psychos because I know a few that would force someone to convert if they knew it wouldn't cost them their lives and most force their children to follow the same belief.