"The progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his creative brain." - Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla ate little and didn't indulge in vices. Other than generosity and a glass of wine at dinner. For Nikola, life was about working on inventions. And to that, he would dedicate himself wholly.
Early Years
Born on July 10, 1856, during a violent lightning storm in the small village of Smiljan, in what was then the Austro-Hungarian Empire and today is Croatia, Nikola Tesla's entrance into the world was as electrifying as the phenomena he would later come to master. According to family tales, the midwife anxiously expressed that the lightning was an ill sign. His mother responded, "No. He will shine with light."
Nikola grew up in a household where intellect and creativity were deeply valued. His father was an erudite Orthodox priest, while his mother, though unschooled, was a brilliant woman with a remarkable memory and a talent for creating homemade craft tools. About her, Nikola would say,
"My mother was an inventor of the first order and would, I believe, have achieved great things had she not been so remote from modern life and its multifold opportunities. She invented and constructed all kinds of tools and devices and wove the finest designs from thread which was spun by her. She even planted the seeds, raised the plants and separated the fibers herself. She worked indefatigably, from break of day till late at night, and most of the wearing apparel and furnishings of the home was the product of her hands. When she was past sixty, her fingers were still nimble enough to tie three knots in an eyelash."
From a young age, Nikola was meticulous, thoughtful and demonstrated a vivid imagination. His genius first revealed itself in his early education, with unique abilities to do complex math in his head and an innate aptitude for learning languages. He would become fluent in eight, including Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin.
In 1870, Nikola moved to Karlovac to attend the Higher Real Gymnasium, where his fascination with electricity grew. Following graduation in 1873, Nikola returned to his hometown, where he contracted and recovered from cholera. During his recovery, he decided to buck against his father's wish for him to join the Orthodox priesthood. Instead, he persuaded his father to let him pursue his studies in engineering.
"During all those years my parents never wavered in their resolve to make me embrace the clergy, the mere thought of which filled me with dread. I had become intensely interested in electricity under the stimulating influence of my Professor of Physics, who was an ingenious man and often demonstrated the principles by apparatus of his own invention. Among these I recall a device in the shape of a freely rotatable bulb, with tinfoil coatings, which was made to spin rapidly when connected to a static machine. It is impossible for me to convey an adequate idea of the intensity of feeling I experienced in witnessing his exhibitions of these mysterious phenomena. Every impression produced a thousand echoes in my mind. I wanted to know more of this wonderful force; I longed for experiment and investigation and resigned myself to the inevitable with aching heart."
Nikola enrolled at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria, in 1875, where he excelled and even outpaced some of his professors, who sometimes disregarded Nikola's ideas. During his time at Austrian Polytechnic, he became more immersed in his studies of electricity.
Nikola's years at the Austrian Polytechnic were marked by high achievement but also by a personal struggle that would greatly impact his academic career - gambling. Nikola's addiction to gambling surfaced in his third year of university, becoming so severe that he gambled away his entire semester's tuition at one point, leading to a personal crisis.