So I’m back. Dad’s health is on a plateau, I am comforting him in his final days or months or whatever, and I’m resurrecting those parts of my business that had stagnated. So I’m back on my blog for the first time in some while, and very happy to be so.

Internet marketing is such a wonderful business. Where else could I maintain my business while caretaking 24-7. It’s all a matter of setting goals and priorities, and sticking to your game plan.

Again, I’m happy to be back, and welcome you all to check out my newly release 5-day video series that I call “Up & Running”. It’s all about building prospect lists through network marketing and social media. Click here to check it out.

That can be a good thing to the extent that it insulates us from the nonsense and negativity is often the main attraction in the real world theatre.

It can also make us forget our obligations, however… Our obligations to our fellow network marketers… to our family and friends, the land that sustains us, the creatures that walk with us.  We might even forget our duty to have an impact to the best of our ability on the world in which we live.

Today, I want you to step away from your business mind for a few minutes.  I’d like you to contemplate the prayer I offer to my Community… That is, to all my Relations… My Relations that are living beings and creatures, and those that are part of the inanimate world that I call my home.

This is a Lakota prayer that I learned many years ago, and repeat always.  I do not offer it because I believe that the Lakota world-view is any better or any worse than any other.  I offer it because it brings us into Spirit, as the prayers of all religions are designed to do.  It is the Way of the Lakota.

I offer this prayer as a challenge.

A challenge to comprehend your place in Community.  That place is as brother and sister to each other, as Keeper of the Earth, as protector of ALL our Relations on this Earth, and as children of the Great Mystery that is Sacred.

A challenge to comprehend the Source of Community.  This Source is what the Lakota call The Great Mystery.  Many call it God.  Many call it Spirit.  It is a single Truth.  There are not different Truth’s for different paths.  There is a single Truth, for all paths.  Depending on our religion, culture, or personal philosophy, We walk many different paths… but there is but One Source.  It is the Source that has inspired all religions and spiritual paths.  This is the teaching of the Lakota.

Most of all, this prayer is a challenge to live in love with all your Relations at all times.  This love comes from understanding and humbly accepting that We Are All Related.  There is no joy or victory in defeating our Relative’s army, or nation, or political belief, or religious dogma, or right to express their beliefs through marginalization, shout-downs or criminalization.  To do so expresses hatred rather than love for Community.

Do not say you love all people when you love only those whose views you share.  Do not say you love, when you sit at your computer, looking for ways to undermine those with whom you disagree.  Do not say you love, when you plot and scheme, and bear false witness against those whom you wish to discredit, because you do not share their beliefs, color, politics, religion or ideology.  Do not say you love when you speak hatred for your brother who watches a different news station than you, or for your sister who prays to a different God.

Dishonesty, angry words, plots to discredit others… These actions dishonor Community, and cause hatred and division that alienates you from Spirit.  You are hidden from the Light, though you receive great applause.

This is the Way of the Lakota.

I offer this challenge to you today.

Before you ridicule and scheme against those that you think are stupid, dangerous, narrow-minded, self-righteous and unworthy to be heard… Know that they are Community.  Labels imposed on them are artificial, meant to set them up for ridicule and scorn.  Do not see only black and white, right and wrong, good and bad, republican and democrat, terrorist and patriot, racist and purist.

Your violation of any person or group of persons’ right to be heard and to be loved EQUALLY with those you deem brilliant, wise and worthy… violates your sacred duty to Community, and prohibits you from being in Spirit.  Such actions of anger, hatred, POWER and PRIDE may gain you great popularity and acclaim, even fortunes and fame… but they destroy Community, and prevent it from being sustained in love… in Spirit.

Walk always in Love and Humility, ESPECIALLY when you believe you are endangered and wronged.  Love ESPECIALLY, those who plot against you.  This expression of Love is what sustains Community.

This is the Teaching of the Lakota.  Aho.

There’s a lot of opportunity to make enormous amounts of money. You can find business partners, MLM downlines and retail customers in larger numbers than you ever dreamed imaginable in the 3-dimensional world. You make new friends so quickly… by the hundreds on Facebook, by the thousands on Twitter. You get to sell your products, promote your business and blast your message and ideas into the ether!

But for many entrepreneurs, the allure of online marketing is most pronounced in the glitzy realm of Stardom. We have all learned by now that personal branding is the essence of attraction marketing. We can best attract people to our products, ideas and messages by positioning ourselves as repositories of value and conduits of success. This becomes our “brand”.

We can develop large followings to our brand, even virtual fan clubs. Some of the most magnetic leaders in the electronic universe command almost cult-like followings. Perry Marshall, Mike Dillard, Jonathan Budd and Katie Freiling come to mind for me. You will probably conjure up images of many others of this ilk. Then there are the rising stars,… too many to recount. Those that are walking the path of their mentors such as those mentioned, aspiring to be their understudies and dreaming of one day being their peers.

I must admit, the leaders I have mentioned have all been a great inspiration to me. Their value as internet marketers is limitless and their foray into the regions of personal development is both inspiring and challenging. Each of them is a great mentor and true leader in this society of aspiring internet marketing stars. And I certainly count myself among that throng.

Yet, in the midst of my entranced immersion into the cult of the star–not least of which is embedded my own personal quest for stardom and leadership–there emerges a twinge of discomfort. This need not concern my reader, insofar as my reader feels unity and cohesion with this road well-traveled. But my own personal quest is apt to be shred to pieces, drowned in irrelevance or hurled upon rocky shores should I surrender my personal bearings upon this journey.

The simple truth is, I did not wander into the regions of online marketing in search of fame and stardom, but to quietly cultivate an independent and sustainable lifestyle. My success, therefore, became defined in terms of my ability to attain these basic achievements. It was elevated by my sense of responsibility to family and community.

Goals of unlimited fortune and unparalleled fame seem to be the norm in the online world, and I think that is fine and well as long as they do not become absolute ends in and of themselves. Personally, I find it imperative to revisit my reasons for creating a personal brand. For me, it is to gain great success, not solely for my own gain, but most especially for the glorification of my Creator and Redeemer. I struggle to create fame and fortune today, but regardless of how great or minute, both will most certainly be gone tomorrow. I may one day be a Superstar… or not…

Either way, the greatness of my success will lie solely in my willing endeavor to apply every ounce of all my abilities to gain success for myself, my family and my community. “I”, in fact, am powerless to succeed on any level, or in any aspect of my life. Only through the grace of God have I been given my own distinct gifts, my own distinct “brand” and even my own ability to take best advantage of them. And only through the grace of God will I ever succeed to whatever degree I do.

But when all is said and done, my ultimate success… my shining “stardom”… will not be measured by the results or extent of my endeavors, but by the humility and persistence with which I undertake them.

Are these people missing something?  How can they be happy without so many of the things… perhaps ALL of the things… that you consider so important?

The answer of course, is that none of the THINGS that you can measure and touch, none of the things that you are able to understand and rationalize… NONE OF THEM are actually essential.  That is, none of them constitute the essence of your being.

The true essence of your being lies beyond your capacity to measure, sell or even understand.  In fact, it lies beyond your normal calculating and rational comprehension.  So to begin living in your true essence… to be in touch with your highest purpose… your Truth… REQUIRES that you embark on a journey to simply lose your mind.  Leave it behind and venture forth without its paradigms, parameters and limitations.  Only outside of your mind can you begin to probe your inner truth, beauty and purpose.  Truth, after all, is not irrational… but it is non-rational.