how to be #1
make a toon
join the best guild you can, and gear up then hop guilds until you are all decked out t9/10/11ish.
farm supreme/tomes and befriend people in the top guild. join it as soon as you can, even w/o a raid spot. then just be around/show up to 100% of raids. eventually someone will quit or slack off to the point that you get a spot.
keep showing up 100% of raids, farm supreme if you don't already have it, max out tomes.
if you have bad luck, you picked a class where someone else has had very high attendance a lot longer than you. if that's the case you have to wait for them to quit, or pass them by getting more quest/6man/exp/charm/etc
essentially it comes down to just putting lots of time, befriending the right people, and having enough skill to beat w/e content is out there.
the cool part is that once you make it there, you don't have to play 40hrs a week anymore, just show up for raids, 6man, and exp enough to fill opuses