Bob Metcalfe

It is very rare to meet someone who has accomplished so many outstanding things in their life and wants to continue to make an extraordinary difference in the world. Meeting Bob Metcalfe was an honor and listening to him talk about his work, his personal life and the advice that he gives to his students was inspiring.

Metcalfe talked about his days in high school and how he wanted to be an architect. Once he was accepted into MIT, his first assignment in architecture school was to draw his hand, which he failed. He then ended up majoring in management. When talking about how he invented the Ethernet, Metcalfe stated that it was not his intention to do so and that one thing just led to another. He understands that he was both lucky and very disciplined, which is what helped him come across to the invention. Bob Metcalfe said, "There are two types of people in this world: There are those who believe that everything is due to luck, and there are those who believe that everything is due to hard work and discipline, I believe it is a mixture of randomness and preparation."
When asked about the advice he gives his students, Metcalfe pointed out 5 important things that everyone should be conscious of:

1. Health-If you are not healthy, you cannot function
2. Speaking- You must be a good speaker, if you are people will listen.
3. Writing- You must practice your writing daily.
4. Planning- It is never a bad idea to plan everything out before you put things in action.
5. Selling

These 5 things are sometimes easy to forget and can also be applied to anyone.Towards the end, Bob Metcalfe was asked about the death of Steve Jobs and how the future will be impacted due to his loss. He was emotional when talking about Steve and also shared some interesting and genuine stories about Steve. A statement that Metcalfe said during this presentation that really stuck out to me was when he said, "Change is not what we need, what we need is improvement."

 --side note: I tweeted his quote after his presentation and he re-tweeted what I wrote, this pretty much made my day!-- He referred to this when he was talking about the future of technological products, especially with the loss of Steve Jobs. There is always a beginning to things if you change them, but if you keep improving them you will keep advancing, and improvement can always lead to greater things.

Check out this video from the New Network Leadership Series. Juniper CEO interviews Bob Metcalfe, where Metcalfe reveals more detailed information about his pioneering work with the Ethernet and what the future holds.