I joined Steemit just over 20 days, and I must say that it took me a significant part of the last week to understand how steem works.
Now that I know what Steem is and how to make the best use of it, I think I can contribute some quality posts here.
I agree when you say that trending authors indeed worked hard for over a long period of time. The most important thing to do right now is to contribute quality posts and get as many as followers as possible as it can help get a lot of upvotes and your post might get viral.