Something a bit different and not that much business-related but since he was a very interesting man, I was sure his autobiography would give me some great insights into his brilliant mind.
It’s a short book (61 pages) about Nikola Tesla and his strange life. The content was largely drawn from a series of articles that Tesla had written for a magazine in 1919 (24 years before his death).
Things that stood out:
- he was a very “odd” child from early on
- he had weird visions that appeared in front of his eyes and he couldn’t get rid of them
- to fight these visions, he developed a powerful “way of envisioning things in his mind” to distract himself away from that which proved to be very beneficial in his later years as an inventor
Nikola Tesla needed no model to test his inventions; they appeared before his eyes as functioning realities that he could stop and start as though they were really there.
- he never liked writing things down or sketching them, he envisioned everything in his mind where he also made 3D models and complex calculations
- he had a photographic memory, he could recite pages from textbooks he read years ago
- he almost died a couple of times but was strangely saved by light flashes accompanied with “lessons” that he then used to save his life
- he was a very sick child for extended periods of time, many times even doctors gave up on him but he somehow always pulled through and live to be 86
- he never slept more than 2 hours and used to work from morning till late afternoon almost without a break
Lessons:
- Be fearless but humble. Don’t be afraid to propose ideas that will not be welcomed right away. You will fail but without fail you will never move an inch.
- Persistence pays off. Don’t abandon your ideas, even if they take years to gain traction.
- Don’t be afraid to be you. Many successful people had quirks and weird habits that only made them stronger.
- Get used to being alone. Harness it to be more productive. “Be alone,” said Tesla. “That is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.”
- Surround yourself with people you admire and are better than you and come from different walks of life.