I question the validity of being a professional. Or an expert. I think these are traps especially regarding the path of the mystic or artist. A professional artist is a failure. An expert mystic is a fraud. An artist is beyond identity. A mystic embraces the unknown uncertainties, no matter where that leads.
A master is different from professional or expert.
Mastery is a way of being. It is a eternal process of experimentation, exploration, experience, expression.
The master knows he is nothing. This knowledge makes him invincible. Bullet proof. To be nothing is to accept everything as a possibility.
Ultimately, the master is free from all bondage and attaches to no creed, no country, no tradition.
The master, the artist, the poet, the mystic are really all the same thing. The path of heart. All rivers and roads come from the source and lead back to it.
GOD is Love.