Have Fun, She Said, But Don't Miss Opportunity

Heads up.

That was the gist of FAA Administrator Marion Blakey's message to members of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's graduating class in Daytona Beach, FL, over the weekend.

While some major commercial airlines are indeed embroiled in financial trouble, Blakey said in her commencement address to about 730 seniors, "local and regional carriers and cargo guys are doing just fine."

She said there's telling how far some graduates with the right stuff and an entrepreneurial spirit may be able to go, she stressed.

Blakey was quoted over the weekend in the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

One such opportunity is "astropreneurism."

No, don't bother looking it up in the dictionary. It's a term Blakey coined to describe the process of cashing in on space travel.

Blakey told a story about the late Gary Kildall, a recently-deceased technology pioneer who actually invented the first desktop computer operating system more than 30-years ago. But when IBM sent representatives to negotiate with him, he was off flying.

"Doing something you love is important,"Blakey warned. "But you've still got to pay attention."

FMI: www.erau.edu, www.faa.gov