The Paradox of Money and Mastery

Essay: Part III of an exploration of mastery

This is Part III, of a series on Mastery that has been written as part of my upcoming book The BoldBrush Way (The Sovereign Artist’s Guide to Making and Marketing Art).

If you are interested Parts I and II, they were published in The BoldBrush Letter. I’ve unlocked them and you may read them at the following links: Mastery - Part I (Why Mastery), Mastery - Part II (How to Become a Master).

Today’s post explores the relationship between mastery and money.

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For any artist, of any type, the pursuit of Mastery needs to be a habit, and it is one that never ends.

I think the right balance is probably to resolve to not hustle to sell your work too soon in your journey.  Modern hustle culture is robbing us of deeper meaning and ruining our ability to truly master our pursuits and yet, mastering our pursuits is the very thing that can lead us out of the dystopia of distraction we have imprisoned ourselves in!

“The only thing in life that's really worth having is good skill. Good skill is the greatest possession. 

The things that money buys are fine. They're good. I like them. But having a skill [is the most important thing].   I learned this from reading Esquire magazine. 

They did an issue on ‘mastery’…a very Zen Buddhist concept. 

Pursue mastery that will fulfill your life. You will feel good. I know a lot of rich people and they don't feel good as you think they…would. They don't. They're miserable. So I work because if you don't in stand up comedy — if you don't do it a lot — you stink.” 

– Jerry Seinfield ¹

[Source: Trung Phan’s excellent blog post on mastery]

Here is an excerpt from the Esquire magazine article Seinfield references:

“In recent years, a growing number of Westerners have been fascinated by accounts of Eastern masters who offer their students years and years of goal-less practice. In the book ‘Zen In The Art of Archery’, for example, a goal-oriented German philosopher named Eugene Herngel tells of spending a whole year under a Japanese master’s tutelage just learning how to breathe correctly while drawing the bow and then spending the next four years learning to loose the arrow — without once trying to hit the target.

There’s a paradox here: One who renounces immediate goals for the sake of diligent practice generally ends up reaching higher goals than one who shoots for quick results. One who takes the path of mastery is likely to end up a winner more often than one who thinks about nothing but scoring points. But winning for a true master isn’t something to use as fuel for a depleted ego or to gloat about with cries of ‘number one’. It’s simply part of a process that began long ago that will continue as long as life goes on. ^₂

[Source: Trung Phan’s excellent blog post on mastery]

In other words, chasing money too soon destroys your chance at mastery, and, doing so diminishes, in the long run, your chances for monetary success as well.  But, paradoxically, early pursuit of mastery enhances your chances of success over the long term.

When I was in the gallery business, we represented an artist who had first studied art, as a child in China, during the cultural revolution.  

He related to me that he was taught how to paint ears, and nothing but ears, from life, for months. Then they painted noses for several more months.  And, then eyes. And then mouths.  He exclaimed, “it took a whole year before we were allowed to paint a single complete face!”

Doesn’t that sound like the Zen master archery story?  

We can criticize such a system if we wish, but how many of us are willing to put in a year, much less years and years to perfect our craft just for the sheer joy of experiencing flow and excellence at having created?

Like the master archer who eventually outshoots his more impatient competitors, this particular artist eventually immigrated to the United States, where he outsold most of his western counterparts.  

My gallery sold almost everything he sent us.  

At his one-person shows, we had to sell his work by random draw due to the demand of multiple collectors wanting the same works.  Each show was a sell-out, with a few lucky purchases, and a long list of disappointed collectors who moved a little higher on his waiting list.  I know that his work now hangs in several museums.  

There are no shortcuts to sell out shows and a waiting list of collectors.  He had put in his time, when he first immigrated, by selling $5 sketches of passerby in a local park.  Long term success requires mastery and long term belief.

In fact, during my gallery time, there was a huge upsurge in the market of many Chinese artists who all possessed a high level of mastery.  They had migrated to the United States or Canada, and many of the western artists struggled to achieve the same level of interest, sales, price points, and prestigious collections that these artists did.

It is for the reasons that I’ve outlined so far that I repeatedly recommend mastery before marketing.

In my own journey of writing, I’m heeding my own advice.  I’ve been writing for decades — but only in a business sense.  However, I’m now writing in pursuit of mastery – essays, fiction, reflections and at least two non-fiction books are coming.  I’ve also started a couple of novels. 

While I am sharing some of my writing journey online, I am not yet selling any of it.  

I’ve been seriously pursuing this now for almost three years and I have not offered a single piece of writing for sale.  I’ve hardly even promoted it.  All of my writing has either stayed private or been published for free, for the goal of getting feedback, and mostly for continuing my journey of mastery.  I am doing exactly what I recommend that you do.  

When I first set up my Substack site, which you are reading now, I made the decision that I wouldn’t even think about money until I had 1,000 subscribers.  It took about a year and a half to reach that point.  I thought it would take longer. Then I decided to wait until I had 2,000 subscribers.  I have almost passed that point (1,990 as of this writing) in about another year.  In fact, I think this is actually the first time I’ve addressed you, the readers, about what I’m doing. I simply started posting with about 50 subscribers from an old site who followed me here. My plan was simple; There was no plan other than this: write.

But, I don’t feel like a master yet.  Now, I’m thinking that perhaps I should not even think about money until I have at least 10,000 subscribers.  

I don’t know.  But what I do know is that I don’t feel, deep in my soul, that I can yet convey The Resonance of The Mystery at a master’s level. 

I can “play the note,” but I can not reliably ensure that the reader feels my motherfu*king attitude, as Miles Davis said. 

I don’t want to take shortcuts and sell “pieces of content.”  I want to produce master-pieces.  Even producing one masterpiece in my lifetime feels like a worthwhile goal. I’ll figure out the money part later…maybe.

In any case, until I can write something with true resonance and effortless action, I will continue my daily habit of pursuing mastery of the vocation that I can’t not pursue — writing — because pursuing it is the thing that is necessary for the creative burning deep in my soul.

If you are a true artist of any kind, I pray that it is the same for you.

“Anybody can play. The note is only 20 percent. The attitude of the motherf*ck!r who plays it is 80 percent.” - Miles Davis

Miles Davis

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Footnotes:

1. Trung Phang,  Jerry Seinfeld, Ichiro Suzuki and the Pursuit of Mastery

2. Trung Phang,  Jerry Seinfeld, Ichiro Suzuki and the Pursuit of Mastery