But one can be courteous and gentle and strong at the same time. A gentleman if you will. Humility is for peasants not for those whom they aspire towards.

And this is exactly the ethos I am talking about. Doing anything self-deprecating is hurting your value proposition if you will. Thus one must strive to appear powerful, yet abstain from insulting the observers. Humility has nothing to do with winning peoples respect - quite the contrary.