Online marketing is an exciting world.

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.