It's not about just being a disruptor. Thought leaders have to qualify on multiple counts to be thought leaders.
They should be different, of course, but ahead of their times. Visionary is some sense, and breaking the mould.
They may or may not have a lot of followers, but their thought could gain acceptance later, as has happened in radical theories about the shape of the earth, or the Earth going around the Sun in Astronomy, or many others.
Nobody accepts anything new without kicking and screaming. So a lot of antipathy can sometimes be a precursor to acceptance, though not always.
You can have thought leaders in Feminism, LGBT rights, or simpler things, like new ways of teaching, discovery or looking at cures for hitherto incurable diseases. Any field of human endeavour, really. We wouldn't be high-fliers without the Wright brothers, right?
