A key aspect of wisdom is learning to understand your place in the world and the brevity of your life.  If you add up the years of every person who has ever lived, and you then compare the years you have to the total years that have been had by all mankind, the space you take up is miniscule.  I’m not trying to be pessimistic… just realistic.  You have, at most, 100 years to make your dent on the universe – and probably at least 10 of those years aren’t very usable.  When you consider the billions of people who have lived on earth, what percentage of those are even remembered today?  Here’s my point: making a name for yourself is futile, but what you do for the sake of God’s glory is enduring because He is enduring.  The wise person leverages his or her influence for the sake of building God’s kingdom because the truth is that your kingdom isn’t big enough and it won't endure long enough for you to waste your life trying to build it.