I think you are wrong. I don't think people listen to Torvalds because he created and leads the development of the Linux kernel. I think people listen to him be

I think you are wrong. I don't think people listen to Torvalds because he created and leads the development of the Linux kernel. I think people listen to him because he is very active in the free software community, voicing his opinions, writing in a somewhat balanced way and clearly expressing what he believes. People don't always agree with him (obviously the Gnome guys don't). You can do exactly the same thing: make your voice heard, state clearly and preferrably factually what you think is best for the free software stack. People will listen!