My sensei was teaching us a lesson on mastery the other day, during which he argued that the people who achieve mastery are the ones who have the courage to be unknown. In other words, true masters focus on their teachings, not on trying to become famous. As I reflected on this perspective, I realized that I agreed… mostly.

See, here’s the thing: on its face, the perspective takes an “either/or” approach to mastery and prominence. Either you work toward mastery, or, you work toward fame and self-gain. You can’t have both.

In reality though, I don’t think my sensei’s view on it is that black and white. If I read between the lines a bit, I think it’s more a question of where your motivation lies. In other words, are you in it for the fame/money/power/whatever, or are you in it for a genuine love of the art?

That right there is the reason I don’t think it’s an either/or decision between mastery and personal success or fame. My view on it is that you can work toward mastery while also naturally achieving fame along the way. The only way I see that happening, though, is if your motivation for working toward mastery lies in the journey and the pursuit of that mastery, not in using mastery as a means of chasing after fame and fortune.

If money is what motivates you to become good at an art, it’s going to show. People can smell it when you have an ulterior motive. When you’re focused on improving for the sake of improving or giving back to the art though, people are naturally going to take notice. In that case, fame just becomes a byproduct of mastery, not an end goal itself.

The most contentious area of this argument revolves around your definition of self-promotion or “fame-chasing.” You could define it as any action in pursuit of gaining more visibility in the markets in which you play. On the other hand, you could also define it more narrowly as any action in pursuit of gaining more visibility that comes at the expense of the pursuit of mastery or adding value to others’ lives.

Is Craig Kielburger a shameless self-promotor for raising awareness of his charity that frees children from poverty and exploitation? Was Martin Luther King when he gave his famous speech in front of over 250,000 people? Of course not. But they were visible! The difference is that they used that visibility for the greater good, not for their own selfish gains.

And that’s where I draw the line between the two. My argument is this: visibility and its pursuit aren’t the enemy of mastery, and they aren’t inherently good or evil; no more than fire is good or evil. They’re both tools to be used in pursuit of an end goal.

The only real question is, who is that end goal in service of?