Will you agree to lose $300 million to save a company you don’t even own? But you know what, Nikola Tesla did, here’s a sneak peek of the story:

In 1907, George Westinghouse’s electric and manufacturing company was facing a financial crisis. To save the company they needed money, but the company or George didn’t have cash flow. Fortunately, Tesla had royalty in his company. So George requested Tesla to eliminate the royalty and let go of the $12 million ($300M today!) he had.

Guess what Tesla did? He agreed!

His mission and vision were bigger than any monetary value. And all thanks to Tesla, because of his vision today we are taking advantage of Alternating Current in our homes, offices, and almost everywhere!

Intriguing? Let’s talk about Nikola Tesla's life journey.

Childhood and Early Days

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, a small village in the Austrian Empire (now Croatia.) He was born into a Serbian family, his father was a priest in a Serbian Orthodox Church, while his mother was known for making innovative household tools and remarkable memory. This early exposure to his mother’s creativity profoundly influenced Nikola Tesla.

Tesla had innate talent and a sharp memory like his mother. He was so good at mathematics and physics. He could calculate numbers in his head with such ease that his teachers thought he was cheating. However, things got tragic when his older brother died when Tesla was just 5. This significantly impacted his life and haunted him for years to come.

His childhood wasn’t always easy. In his teen years, he experienced cholera, and for 8–9 months he was bedridden. He went through several pains, but they also served him as inspiration.

His father wanted him to follow him into the clergy, but Tesla wanted something else, so he promised his father that if he recovered, he would pursue engineering.

Two years later he was at the Austrian Polytechnic!

Tesla, later in life, said that reading Mark Twain’s work was a great deal that helped him recover from the traumatic event he was going through. When Tesla moved to the US, they became friends, and Mark loved to spend time in Tesla’s lab.

Education and Adult Life

“Your son is a star of first rank.”

This was the praise his father received from Tesla’s university dean. Tesla’s education began at the Technical University in Graz, Austria, where he studied electrical engineering. No doubt, Tesla was a brilliant student — working and studying from 3 am to 11 pm seven days a week!

But things started to shift after he passed his second year, he developed a dangerous habit of gambling. He gambled his tuition money, played cards on the streets, and eventually dropped out of college.

Then in 1881, after dropping out of college, Tesla moved to Budapest to work at the Central Telegraph Office. It was there that he conceptualized the idea of a “Rotating magnetic field” — a groundbreaking idea that would be fundamental to the Alternating Current (AC) electricity system.

The next chapter of his life was waiting for him.

Moving to the USA

In 1884, Tesla emigrated to America with 4 cents in his pocket and a head full of visionary ideas. In New York, he started working at Thomas Edison’s machine company.

Thomas was impressed by Tesla’s work and offered to pay him $50,000, only if he could make the Direct Currents (DC) electricity generators successful, which Tesla did. But Thomas refused to pay him the price he was promised, saying “You’re too naive to understand an American joke.”

Shortly he left Thomas’ company and started working on his own.

At the Western Union Lab, Tesla flourished. He developed AC Motors and power systems. He patented his work too. His work was recognizable and spreading. Soon one of the industrialists, George Westinghouse reached out to him — asking for patent rights to Tesla’s AC.

Tesla agreed and partnered with him for $60,000 cash plus, royalties.

The War of Currents

In the late 1880s, the war started between “AC and DC” makers. Nikola Tesla was trying to teach and show people about the power and capabilities of Alternating Currents, while on the other hand, Thomas Edison was portraying the wrong picture of AC so he could sell more DC motors.

Thomas would use Altering Currents to shock animals and show people how bad is it for society — trying to stop people from using AC motors, and increasing the sales of DC motors this way.

But things started to become challenging by the early 1890s. Tesla had developed AC motors and was a successful inventor and engineer. However one of his partners, who had patent rights to AC motors, George Westinghouse was in a conflict of “The War of Currents” and was facing a gigantic competition with DC makers.

The financials of George’s company were on the path to bankruptcy. He needed money to comply with partners and to save the company. Unfortunately, George and his company didn’t have cash flow. But he had two options: Either let the company die or ask Tesla to eliminate the royalties he had in the company and use the money to run the company.

He chose the second option: He asked Nikola Telsa “if he would be willing to eliminate his royalties and let go of his $12 million ($300M now) so they could save the company.”

Tesla’s vision was way bigger than any monetary value, so he said YES and eliminated the royalties he had in the company, which became the cash flow for the company.

George was kind and honest to Tesla, so in exchange, he offered him a lump sum of $216,000 for perpetual rights to keep using the patent rights.

This single-handedly saved the Geroge company from bankruptcy. But-but-but imagine if Telsa hadn’t eliminated his royalties from the company, he would’ve become the world’s first billionaire!

Inventions and Challenages

At this point, Tesla didn’t have a lot of money, but just enough to live a decent life, while he was single and was never into any relationship, he didn’t have other responsibilities or expenses, he was okay.

But then…an unexpected thing happened:

In 1895, a devastating fire destroyed his lab in New York — years of paperwork — which he had gained and accumulated — was gone.

Soon in 1899, he moved to Colorado where got into wireless communication technology. He believed that sending messages via wireless communication was possible but all he needed was — money.

So in 1901, he began this new project with the help of $150k ($4.5M today) from JP Morgan’s fund. But this time the competition was not with Edition, but with Marconi, who was also indulged in radioactive wireless communication.

To out-compete Marconi and make the project successful, Tesla needed more money. Thus, Tesla asked for “More” money from JP Morgan. But this time Morgan refused to pay him a dime, whereas he invested all his money in Marconi’s project.

But Tesla still had hopes. He sent 50 letters over the next five years to JP Morgan hoping to get the money from him. Sadly he never heard back from him. Even after JP Morgan's death, he kept sending letters to Morgan’s son but he never heard back from him too.

It took Tesla a while to realize that it was a battle of failure and would never succeed in this project. Later, Marconi, successfully transmitted the first letter “S” with wireless radio communication.

Though Tesla’s contribution to wireless communication was remarkable.

Destruction and Death

As years passed, his wealth decreased dramatically. Despite the circumstances, he worked on various new projects but never succeeded in any, because there wasn’t anyone willing to bet on his ideas. At this point, he wasn’t making money, so he relied on George’s company charity money, which George helped him with — for his survival.

As he aged, he grew closer to pigeons. He lived alone in a New Yorker hotel room 3327 in New York where he died from coronary thrombosis at the age of 86, alone. The death was largely unnoticed by the mainstream media.

But six months after Tesla’s death, the US Supreme Court posthumously awarded and gave him credit for inventing radio technology after revoking Marconi’s patent — a recognition that overshadowed Tesla’s contribution to wireless radio communication technology.

Legacy

Nikola Tesla isn’t alive, but his work will never be forgotten.

He is one of the greatest inventors of all time. His idea paved the way for modern electricity systems and wireless communication technologies. He dreamed of renewable energy — a fascinating concept that deeply resonates with today’s generation.

Though, Tesla is often portrayed as a misunderstood genius whose contributions were overshadowed by other commercial successes. In schools, you didn’t learn anything about Nikola Tesla, they don’t even mention his name anywhere in textbooks, which is heartbreaking.

All we learn about is Thomas Edison, and we give all the credit to him for the work or invention he never did in his life. Thomas Edison wasn’t a great scientist or inventor, he was a great marketer, who mostly cared for his own financial profitability. Do you think he invented the bulb? No, he DID NOT.

Thanks for reading!