Creating business and economic value by moving humanity into the solar system is not your typical 9-5 job.  Indeed, as in all other entrepreneurial ventures there is only one thing that will carry you forward during the difficult and dark days that are always invisibly lurking ahead.  It is not your business plan, nor your marketing plan, nor your financials.  Only that irrational passion in your soul that will not let you stop doing what you are compelled to do because it is what you are here to do will keep you going.  That, and staying focused on the opportunities.

And these opportunities have increased due to NASA's reinvigorated commercial orientation and the emerging entrepreneurial NewSpace (suborbital aviation, vertical launch, orbiting facilities and destinations, etc.) industry.  This, plus the fact that the ongoing expansion of the Universe is not adding more hours to the day (nor making it easier to find a parking spot, as Woody Allen once said), has led me to put my digital quill aside and focus on my consulting.  It's the most effective and efficient way to continue my commitment to the exploration, settlement, and development of our Moon (the eighth continent) and the solar system beyond and the creation of new jobs and wealth at home.

Also, my work and connections within the space/aerospace community have introduced me to new friends and provided consulting engagements in the Defense industry.  As government budgets shrink due to the financial and economic situation, Aerospace and Defense companies that have relied primarily on cost-plus government contracts will be forced to find new commercial opportunities.  Some firms understand this and see opportunity within the uncertainty, both within their current markets and perhaps in new and unfamiliar markets.  Other companies will try a "business as usual" approach and hope that the turmoil is only temporary, that the good times will return if they only stay their tried-and-true course.  In either case, I look forward to helping executives and managers make the difficult strategic decisions and implement the resulting... and challenging... new tactics.

So even though the date of this entry will recede into the past, everything else on my website is current.  And should some future topic create within me a burning desire to add my voice, I'll write another Op-Ed for Space News, the Raleigh News & Observer, or some other publication.

Thank you for visiting, and since you made the e-trip I hope you'll enjoy some of my favorite quotes in the rest of this piece.  And you can follow my space ramblings on Twitter.

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Why not go out on a limb? Isn't that where the fruit is?" -- Frank Scully, American writer

"Never tell people how to do things.  Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." -- George S. Patton

"They are all discoveres who think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea." -- Sir Francis Bacon

"It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change." -- Charles Darwin

"The 'silly question' is the first intimation of some totally new development."
-- Alfred North Whitehead, English mathematician and philosopher

"No flying machine will ever fly from New York to Paris ... [because] no known motor can run at the requisite speed for four days without stopping." -- Orville Wright

“I've missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times I've been trusted to take the game winning shot... and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
-- Michael Jordan

“Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare.”
-- Japanese Proverb

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.  Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
-- Margaret Mead

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

“The more you reason, the less you create.”
-- Raymond Chandler (American Writer)

“The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order.”
-- Alfred North Whitehead

"If you dislike change, you're going to dislike irrelevance even more."
-- US Army General E. K. Shinseki (Ret.)

"Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write."
-- John Adams

"Continuous improvement is not a requirement. Survival is not mandatory."  
-- W. Edwards Deming

"By logic and reason we die hourly, by imagination we live."  
-- Jonathan Butler Yeats

“You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.”
-- Ogden Nash

''There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.''
 -- Peter F. Drucker

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”    -- Marcel Proust

“Anything can be achieved in small, deliberate steps.  But there are times you need the courage to take a great leap; you can’t cross a chasm in two small steps.” – David Lloyd George

“Wanderer, there is no path.  You lay a path in walking.” – A. Machado (Spanish poet)

“The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.” – David Bohm (physicist)

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right.  When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.” – Arthur C. Clarke

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few” – Zen master Suziki Roshi

“In order to gain knowledge, add something every day.  To gain wisdom, get rid of something every day.” – Lau-Tsu, founder of Taoism

“I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can't be done.” – - Henry Ford