One of the greatest inventors of modern times died in poverty and was forgotten by society for years after his death. When we think of the greatest minds in this world, we immediately think of the genius of people like Albers Einstein, who determined and laid the foundation for today's physicists; Or Stephen Hawking, the man who studied general relativity and quantum gravity. But none of these men had as much impact on your daily life as Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla was able to memorize entire books and visualize inventions with exact precision. Once he memorized his plan, he went out and made it a reality. This made his spirit truly unique. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayLet's start at the beginning. Nikola Tesla was born in 1846 in a small village in present-day Croatia. Tesla's birth took place during a particularly violent storm; Reading this as a bad omen, the doctor told Tesla's mother that her son was going to be a child of darkness. Tesla's mother told the doctor that he was wrong and that he was a child of light. As we will see later, Tesla agrees with his mother. During high school, it began to become clear that Tesla was a little different from his classmates. He was able to perform the integral calculation in his head himself. He ended up doing so well on his exams that his teachers accused him of cheating. Not surprisingly, Tesla was able to graduate early. Unfortunately, soon after, he contracted cholera. A potentially deadly virus that can kill you within hours if left untreated. He had a conversation with his father and begged his father to let him study engineering, as it was the only way he could continue living, instead of choosing the already planned path of becoming a priest. Fortunately, his father agreed. Tesla spent the day bedridden and paralyzed due to the severity of his illness, but made a surprising recovery when the odds were against him. Tesla's father stayed true to his word and let Tesla go to college in Austria. At university, Tesla exceeded expectations by achieving the highest grades possible, being able to speak eight different languages, and being called a star student of the highest order by the dean of universities. Tesla claimed to have worked from three in the morning until eleven at night. For this reason, his teachers wrote several letters to his father telling him that his son was in danger of being killed because of excessive work. During his sophomore year, Tesla became addicted to gambling. He ended up losing all of his scholarship money, as well as his parents' money. Soon after, he was able to pay his parents for the losses, but unfortunately did not pass his exams. He requested an extended period of study, but his request was denied. Tesla failed his exams and was forced to abandon his studies. To hide the fact that he had failed at university, Tesla abandoned his family and fled to Budapest. This happened so suddenly that a rumor spread among his friends that he had drowned. From Budapest he moved to America with only four hundred to his name. After working a few random jobs, Tesla was able to work for Thomas Edison at one of his first power plants. While working there, Tesla said he came up with the idea to improve the DC motors and generators designed by Edison. In return, he asked for a million dollars for his improvements, which Edison accepted. The improvements madeby Tesla to motors have been so important that the technology is used in our everyday appliances such as washing machines, for the vibrations of our smartphones and even in a main component of Tesla cars! After Tesla took the finished product to Edison, he was laughed at. Edison told Tesla that he didn't understand our American humor and that he wasn't getting any money. At that time, around 1890, the electric revolution was about to begin. It was a change believed to be even bigger than the introduction of the Internet in the 1990s. Soon the world moved from oil lamps to electric light bulbs. Electricity has created the biggest investment bubble we have ever seen. Companies worth billions appeared out of nowhere, and the U.S. economy was plunged into a period of accelerated growth that lasted decades. Work, as well as life itself, has been made easier thanks to this great change. After being tricked by Edison, Tesla decided to join the electric revolution by studying the inner workings of alternating voltage. While seeking backers for his low-AC world, Tesla set about digging ditches for two dollars a day, which equates to about fifty dollars in today's economy . In his autobiography, Tesla describes this period of his life as the most painful. Fortunately, Tesla was able to enter into a partnership with George Westinghouse, an entrepreneur and engineer who invented railroad breaking; which put Tesla in direct competition with Edison and his company General Electric. Fortunately, Edison never used Tesla's original plan for more efficient motors. So this means Edison was using his old system which created dangerous sparks, couldn't transmit electricity very far, required a power plant almost every mile, and had cables as thick as an arm. On the other hand, Tesla's AC system used thinner wires, had higher voltages, and could transmit electricity over long distances. Edison knew that Tesla's system was superior, so he began to block Tesla's chances of expansion. His special interest companies began stealing Tesla's ideas and patenting them so Tesla could not claim ownership. Not only that, but Edison began paying schoolchildren twenty-five cents for any pets they could catch around Tesla's house. He would go and show it to the public using Tesla's alternating current to shock the animals and scare the public into believing that what Tesla was making was dangerous. This led to the invention of the electric chair. You can believe that Edison made sure he used Tesla's alternating current to shock his victims. This series of events led Tesla to prove to the public the safety of his invention by shooting a current through his body to power a light bulb at the 1893 world's fair. Obviously, this has led to a surge in AC usage worldwide. Tesla quickly became a celebrity simply for making everyone's lives easier with his one invention. This led the public to despise Edison, and soon after he lost control of his company, General Electric. To give Edison some credit, he is responsible for inventing the first motion picture camera; so he had also contributed greatly to society. What I believe led Tesla to his decline was his love for humanity. In his autobiography, Tesla said: “Money doesn't mean as much to me as it does to other people..