A biography for Robert Metcalfehasn’t been written yet.
“In seven to ten years video traffic on the Internet will exceed data and voice traffic combined.”
“My advice is never let a publicist call you a 'visionary.' I've hung out with the visionaries at the famed Xerox Palo Alto Research Center. I've been a successful Silicon Valley entrepreneur. I wouldn't touch 'visionary' with a 10-foot pole.”
“I saw that there are people who will connive against innovation. They're hostile to it. And that has shaped my behavior ever since.”
“I've screwed up and I've overcommitted and it's typical of me.”
“You don't grow the economy by growing government.”
“When you're running a company, creating jobs is the last thing you want to. When you're running a company you want to employ as few people as possible, and yet you inadvertently create jobs.”
“Where visionaries can be good at persuasion, CEOs are good at wielding authority. Visionaries transcend organizations, resources, and current realities, while CEOs master them.”
“The internet will catastrophically collapse in 1996.”
“The world needs a better understanding of how to encourage innovation. And innovators need to get better at it. Sign me up.”
“If you cannot be on the project each day to check on things, then you should not try and be your own contractor.”
“Innovation makes the world go round. It brings prosperity and freedom.”
“Grove giveth and Gates taketh away.”
“I consider what I write to be literature. I choose the words carefully.”