9 Quotes by Nikola Tesla That Will Inspire You to Invent Your Own Destiny
By: Aamna I. Rizvi
Tags: Growth, Science, Self Improvement, Wisdom, Self Development

9 Quotes by Nikola Tesla That Will Inspire You to Invent Your Own Destiny

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I have hero-worshiped Tesla all my life. In fact, he was the Justin Timberlake to my nerdy teenaged-girl and I’m still not ashamed of it.

Nikola Tesla was really a Serbian-American engineer, inventor and futurist whose name mostly comes up with respect to his contributions in the modern electric supply. But before he was any of these things, he was a boy whose father was an orthodox christian priest and wanted him to adopt the same profession.

At 17, Tesla suddenly fell severely sick with barely any hopes of recovering. Tesla’s father promised him that if he got better, he would no longer have to become a priest. Instead, he would be sent to the best institute to pursue his passion for scientific learning. The rest worked out as we already know.

There was no linear climb to success for Tesla though.

One moment he had the highest grades at the Austrian Polytech, the next he lost his scholarship and all his money because he became addicted to gambling. One day he was working for Edison as one of his most trusted men and the next day, they became the worst adversaries. At his lowest point he was even digging ditches for $2/day. But beyond it all, he devoted his life to a purpose of his choosing and that let him pave his own destiny till the end.

Tesla has inspired millions to decide their own destiny, work hard for the pursuits that give life purpose and always, always bounce-back from the setbacks.

“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”

Due to the early influence of his father, Tesla was a religious man but above all he was a man of science. His deep introspection led him to come at peace and embrace the good and the bad in himself.

Minor setbacks or grossly falling short of expectations. Mistakes or colossal fuck-ups. They can all define how we view ourselves. But sometimes, they can lead people to build a prison of self-identity based on only their least spectacular moments.

In reality, no man is without flaw because that’s what being human means. If we embrace our virtues, we should also embrace the flaws that make us human. It is only after we accept them without feeling defeat that we can put in the work and undo our pathologies.

“All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.”

A diamond is only a piece of charcoal that could handle pressure well. But diamonds also spend 25% of the earth’s age buried in extreme temperatures and pressures. The fact that even a world-class inventor faced ridicule and condemn says a lot about how much attention you should pay to what the world thinks of your ideas then.

Yet people have a sense of urgency when they invest in their dreams. They don’t think about how time is relative to every single person, and there’s absolutely no need to peak by a certain age. When you see new ideas get ridiculed or shot down — it’s natural to lose heart and want to abandon everything.

But great men commit to the struggle. They pay no heed to the criticism or bashing. They are too invested in their mad genius inventories, building something people have never seen before. It takes a lot of belief in oneself, tears, sweat and blood to identify and work for the life you want to have. If it was any easier, a lot more people would be happier by the end.

“Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance.”

If you’re too vested in your own life sometimes it can seem as though other factors don’t influence your growth. But Tesla is onto something when he says we are all like cogs in the machine of a clock. Every slight movement on our part, starts a ripple effect in a grand scheme of things we don’t necessarily have a foresight to appreciate.

The people you surround yourself with matter. The ideas, books, movies and other content you consume matters — like the input effects the output. If you’re wondering why you’re not able to achieve your goals or produce excellence despite laboring over your desk for hours at a time — ask yourself what you do when you’re not at your desk?

Whether or not you’re consciously keeping it in check, your surroundings dictate your destiny. They limit or expand your opportunities. Your world-view and belief in yourself leans against much more than the people immediately beside you (truer than ever in this day and age) and this begs you to be more conscious of who you allow to become your influence.

“But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile.”

Instincts lead to lucky guesses. Luck floods us with happy chemicals. Happy chemicals are addicting. And addiction leads to curiosity to pursue what we have a great instinctual sense of already.

A formal education might enable you for success. A theoretical knowledge of the world in any field will put you ahead of the multitudes of people. But many of us only have an innate instinct for something we are passionate about. And lacking the first two might make us timid or dwarf in front of the experts.

Tesla says to look for this “instinct” because it may be the fuel that drives you to the purpose of your life. Ask yourself what are you curious about? What can you spend hours learning? These qualities can put you ahead of many others who might not have the same passion despite being in the field.

It’s never too late to seek education. And answering these questions honestly is pivotal in designing your destiny despite your current circumstances. (pun intended)

“Most persons are so absorbed in the contemplation of the outside world that they are wholly oblivious to what is passing on within themselves.”

Before you look outwards, look within. Before you start seeking things from the world, ask yourself and define what it is that you truly need that might fulfill you.

Coming to terms with however much or however little we need makes the path to what we want streamlined. Many times, we struggle with external things and it keeps us banging our heads on dead-ends looking for the answer to what’s missing. Simply taking time off and asking yourself why you’re not aligned to progress in the world can be so much easier.

Something I read a while back really stuck with me. “You have little control over the world around you, but full control over the world within you.” ― Matshona Dhliwayo. If you want to start excelling in life, you have to start allocating time to writing, talking to yourself and understanding the inner workings of your mind. Find out what is the inner dialogue on which your actions and interactions with the outside world sprout. Resolve that dialogue or concentrate it according to your life.

Knowing where the on and off button is can help you control who you become with the experiences life throws at you.

“Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment and merging of races, and we are still far from this blissful realization.”

It’s 2020 but we are still full of prejudice and unwilling to move on from it. We tear through layers of peoples’ complex personalities, lifetime worth of experiences, and assign them an identity just for our own ease of comprehension.

But it stagnates our own growth. It regresses the world around us to an intolerant one. We never know when someone we love dearly might be in the line of fire because what color they are, what their belief-system is or who they identify as. And what will we do then?

What Tesla says makes it obvious we are still stuck in 18th century mentally. Peace is the first step in order for societies and nations to progress. We all have a responsibility to educate ourselves, open our minds and make our spaces more accepting so we can progress to the bigger things in life.

“As I review the events of my past life I realize how subtle are the influences that shape our destinies.”

Human beings are fragile. We project our trauma, happiness and even growth on each other. Every interaction has the potential to leave a lasting mark on the next person.

Despite being so malleable — we pay the least regard to saying yes to things instead of taking a moment to think. Every decision we take has the potential to ruin our life or raise us to the level of our heroes. Every time you say yes to an opportunity, you block out a part of your life to indulge in it. You block it out so that it’s not open to all the other things you could be doing. Time is a resource that runs smaller and smaller as we enter the end of life.

The general attitude of your parents could have defined how you interact with the world around you today. The smallest habits you build today could be writing what your future looks like tomorrow. Only a few moments of focus could give you a taste of what you would love to do for the rest of your life. A few days on a vacation could make it clear to you a person is meant for you. They say 20/20 hindsight, but you could PAUSE and reflect right now. And it could make all the difference to your life in the future.

“The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter — for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and labors and hopes.”

2 words. Compounding Effect.

In his book, The Compound Effect, Darren Hardy talks about how you can jump-start your life, your income and your success only by taking small, seemingly ineffective actions as they compound over time. Think of it like all the small jobs you do that build your CV for the day when that’s the perfect resume for your dream job.

Everything in life is built on the same principles. Looking for instant gratifications or the one moment immediately after starting something when your life takes off — is futile. It will make you lose interest and chase a mirage rather than committing to the journey. When your hard-work is finally recognized at some point, all your life’s success would become a launching pad and verify your success is sustainable.

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”

Intimidating as it might seem when you first start at the bottom of the class — you’re already ahead of so many others who are never brave enough to let themselves suck at something. Tesla’s quote should be your motto in such times.

When we people succeeding or making it big in the present, it can distract you from your progress, frustrate you or even fill you with envy. We go deep-diving into their methods, techniques and their biographies that have zero relevance to our own life.

We have limited time, and this is not what you’re put on the planet to do. Your time is better spent vested into your own work. Pave your own path even if it seems like you’re stuck in a forest full of uncertainty and brain fog. The only way is forward and through once you build up the courage. The present might belong to a different set of leaders, but it not set in stone. There’s always room at the top for more people. And if you give yourself a boost by putting in the work, you might be where your heroes stand today.