I think you upvoting your own post caused the effect of others voting on it because you typically upvote your own post within the first minute. If you have substantial voting power, your post looks like winner(larger reward pool) immediately. If I understand it correctly, it will also reach the trending tab faster because the trending page looks at stake weight. A noob can upvote their own posts all day or all year long and never get on the trending tab. 

Also, isn't part of the mining pool designated to the stake holders? Isn't that a return for just having steem? Isn't promoting the virtues and use of steemit a way to create return on your investment? No public company would allow share holders to go to their facilities and start using their employees or equipment to maximize their return on investment because that would take away from the company's ability to grow and the other shareholders wouldn't have it. How does that get so mixed up here?