Bob Metcalfe, Boy Wonder, Grown Man Success

-->The French have a saying, "The best part of an affair is going up the stairs". And so it’s been that way for me with my 87-year affair with life. For me, the anticipation of finding the unexpected has been the equivalent of "going up the stairs". And so sitting by the tennis courts or out to dinner with a young friend of mine, Bob Metcalfe, many years ago, it was natural for me to insert myself into Bob's life and grind on him, hard, for him to look for the serendipity of life (climbing up the stairs) and use his formidable education, work background plus his unbelievable creativity "to go up the stairs" and give up being a wage slave.... Here was this guy, inventing, literally, a world changing procedure (Ethernet) and being a grunt for Xerox. How foolish. Bob was good looking, a very good tennis player loaded, with charisma and the necessary touch of arrogance, working for someone else. Made no sense to me. Finally Bob left Xerox and started consulting. One day he told me that he was going to Dallas to try to hook on with Texas Instruments as a consultant and proudly told me that he was going to ask $250/day ($70 dollars) and expenses. I looked at him like a bull with a bastard calf and reviewed with him his years in education (20 plus years), his academic degrees and years with Xerox Research. I told Bob to charge $1,000 a day plus first class airfares. So, he asked how the hell could he justify the number? I told him to tell the TI people that he split the difference between $750 and $1,250. He did get $700 and first class travel...The high point of my business relationship with Bob Metcalfe was to introduce him to Dick Kramlich of New Enterprise Associate, another great guy and super achiever, who became the lead investor in 3com - huge success for investors and Bob Metcalfe.