  The pole mass of a heavy quark is ambiguous by an amount of order
$\Lambda_{QCD}$. We show that the heavy-quark potential, $V(r)$, is similarly
ambiguous, but that the total static energy, $2M_{pole}+V(r)$, is unambiguous
when expressed in terms of a short-distance mass. This implies that the
extraction of a short-distance mass from the quarkonium spectrum is free of an
ambiguity of order $\Lambda_{QCD}$, in contrast with the pole mass.
