The best way to be "truly" successful in the schemes and plans of God for your life is to have zero tolerance for self fame.
If ninety percent of your motivation and drive for success and impact in life is to be known and recognized, it simply means that you are already in ninety percent error. Until you are hundred percent driven to "truly" see the earth experience the fame of the kingdom of God and the exaltation of the Christ upon the earth, everything you will ever achieve is "balloon success" according to apostle Joshua Selman. It would be short-lived.
I always tell my friends who crave for fame that, all they need to pursue is to sincerely seek to make the kingdom of God and the Christ famous on the earth, and without pursuing fame and relevance, they will effortlessly walk in them. Now, this is not a bribe to fame, it is just an expression of your sincere Love for Him. Remember, God cannot be mocked. What you sow is what you reap. True fame is a state you assume unconsciously when you sincerely and consciously pursue the fame and relevance of the kingdom of God and the Christ here on earth. You don't lobby into true fame, it is a reward - a reward for more and greater kingdom impact not necessarily for your personal gain.
Looking at men and women who truly commanded "true" fame and "true" influence that stood the test of times, one thing is common to all of them - pursuit for manifest kingdom relevance and fame upon the earth along with exalting the Christ. That is all they lived for and were prepared to die for.
Let's look at few examples. The first is Jesus Christ. Mathew chapter 4 verses 24 says, "And His fame went through out all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases, and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatics, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them.
Chapter 9 verses 26 of Mathew still says, "And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land." verses 31 of the same chapter 9 says, "But when they were departed, spread abroad His fame in all that country." Also read Mathew 14 verse 1, Mark 1 verse 28, Luke 4 verse 14, Luke 4 verse 37, and Luke 5 verse 15. What was the secret of the fame of Jesus? It was because His desire was to do the will of the Father with the intent of the kingdom being established on the earth. it was not a self-centered ministry. He didn't just preach the message of the kingdom, He left every place with the manifest reality of the kingdom. it was the manifest reality of the kingdom that gave Him His fame effortlessly.
Also, the apostles in Acts chapter 17 verse 6 were addressed as men that have "turned the world upside down." Of course this was as a result of their fame but that was not what they were pursuing - their only pursuit was the kingdom of God being manifest here on earth and exalting the Christ. There are a lot of examples to cite but let me stop here with the examples.
If all you are craving for is self fame, then without apology, you are of all men most miserable.
