I appreciate people's concern that there is some great venue that I'm not getting access to (and there are so many), or some great person I ABSOLUTELY need to meet, or some show I MUST get on, or some speech I HAVE to deliver (typically free) and--in general--there are things I SHOULD be doing and because I'm not, then I must not be very serious in my work/vision/life/etc.

Everybody means well by these emails. Some are written quite nicely, others seek to shame me into doing whatever the writer is asking/demanding/suggesting.

Everyone is convinced their particular advice is what's standing between me and greatness/success/"real world" validation, and the implied assumption is always that whatever I'm doing now just ain't enough (real enough, cool enough, profound enough, impactful enough).

I understand that PNM turns people on, and that's great. I understand that BFA pushes my stuff much further beyond the military, and that's great too.

I understand that all that turning-on and pushing creates expectations and desires to do real things, and that's spectacular.

In reality, though, I can't be part of everybody's thing, no matter how great it all is. Also, in reality, the work I end up prioritizing within the USG and the military IS really IMPORTANT and useful and good and--quite frankly--it's what I love to do most and it's what I do best.

In that venue alone, I have a lot of interactions constantly going that are easy for me to pick up because the government itself simply arranges for most of it, meaning I just gotta show up and do my thing in consulting.

The reality for me right now is, between the military/gov/intell/foreign govs interactions like this, the speeching, the blogging, the writing for Esquire, plotting Vol. III and that little thing called being Senior Managing Director for Enterra Solutions (and through that a small host of new titles looming at or through Oak Ridge National Lab), I am somewhat tapped as the husband of one, father of four, and house-builder whose trying like crazy to work as many PR opportunities as possible to support BFA (like going on the radio in MN in about 30 minutes).

I will, of course, quite naturally be a "loser" and "fake" and "ego-maniac" and a host of things to anyone who's proposal I just can't pick up and run with, and I will have to live with that. But I will prioritize my family as much as possible. I will not end up being the great man who saves the planet and whose kids hate him because he never gave a rat's ass about their existence (and there are so many such "great men"). As my wife often says, "Don't treat strangers better than your family."

Yes, I will continue to try to do all and be all and read all and write all and speech all and meet all.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone's email, because quite regularly they end up changing my life, my work, my content, my damn near everything, like Michael Lotus convincing me to read Martin Wolf or others pushing Hammes' book in my direction or people counseling me to lay off Friedman or a guy named DeAngelis wanting an advance copy and a year later I'm his Senior Managing Director.

I don't want to stop any of that. I just want people to be more reasonable in their expectations. Most emails for me, given the incredible volume which I still seek to wade through, have to be a several seconds thing and no more. Otherwise, that becomes my life and I'm not into that.

Yes, I now have help in personal assistant (in addition to being webmaster) Critt Jarvis, and he will end up speaking and interacting for me more and more. I can't escape that outcome. It's just as it has to be.

Enough whining from me today. Need to shower and get ready for Tracy.

For all of you who've emailed over the "Daily Show," know this: Putnam did pitch and they passed. Putnam will pitch again, but that show is booking already into early Jan, so the likelihood of them backtracking to an Oct pub date is miniscule. Yes, it would be cool to go on the show, but that is a ratings driven world and celebrity authors rule. I could pursue the celebrity thing full time, but I have only so many years to do what I want to do, and making the vision thing happen for real inside the military simply strikes me as most important. And yeah, that world doesn't like celebrities or having most of their stories told. I will do what I can via Esquire and elsewhere to make that world transparent to the larger world, but I respect the need for secrecy, understand their desire to keep a low profile, and realize that most of what I do in that venue will never hit the light of day.

And that's okay. I will sell enough books. I will change enough minds. The celebrity I have now is more than enough for me. I will pursue that angle only to the degree that it makes sense given all the competing concerns and desires.

I chose this path a long time ago, knowing it would not be the best route for either riches or fame. But this route continues to mean the most to me. Nothing even comes close to being on stage working a military audience--nothing. And even that doesn't compare to the rooms I get to enter, the conversations I get to have, or the players I get to work with. All THEIR achievements and responsibilities and sacrifices demand respect, and my time, and my best efforts at pushing the vision.

And they will have all those things for as long as I work.