A little AA literature and history - read Bill W.'s 1948 Grapevine article on Tradition Five:

Tradition Five

                  Says the old proverb, "Shoemaker, stick to thy last." Trite, 

                  yes. But very true for us of AA. How well we need to heed the 

                  principle that it is better to do one thing supremely well 

                  than many things badly.

                  Because it has now become plain enough that only a recovered 

                  alcoholic can do much for a sick alcoholic, a tremendous 

                  responsibility has descended upon us all, an obligation so 

                  great that it amounts to a sacred trust. For to our kind, 

                  those who suffer alcoholism, recovery is a matter of life or 

                  death. So the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous cannot, it dare 

                  not, ever be diverted from its primary purpose. 

                  Temptation to do otherwise will come aplenty. Seeing fine 

                  works afoot in the field of alcohol, we shall be sorely 

                  tempted to loan out the name and credit of Alcoholics 

                  Anonymous to them; as a movement we shall be beset to finance 

                  and endorse other causes. Should our present success continue, 

                  people will commence to assert that AA is a brand-new way of 

                  life, maybe a new religion, capable of saving the world. We 

                  shall be told it is our bounden duty to show modern society 

                  how it ought to live.

                  Oh, how very attractive these projects and ideas can be! How 

                  flattering to imagine that we might be chosen to demonstrate 

                  that olden mystic promise: 'The first shall be last and the 

                  last shall be first." Fantastic, you say. Yet some of our 

                  well-wishers have begun to say such things.

                  Fortunately, most of us are convinced that these are perilous 

                  speculations, alluring ingredients of that new heady wine we 

                  are now being offered, each bottle marked "Success"!

                  Of this subtle vintage may we never drink too deeply. May we 

                  never forget that we live by the grace of God -- on borrowed 

                  time; that anonymity is better than acclaim; that for us as a 

                  movement poverty is better than wealth.

                  And may we reflect with ever deepening conviction, that we 

                  shall never be at our best except when we hew only to the 

                  primary spiritual aim of AA. That of carrying its message to 

                  the alcoholic who still suffers alcoholism.

        

Copyright © The A.A. Grapevine, Inc., April 1948