Meet the father of the modern alternating current electricity supply system, Nikola Tesla. He was a Serbian-American electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and inventor best known for his discovery of his patented rotating magnetic field. But there’s more to Tesla than just being a physics genius.

There is not much known about the electrical engineer because he cared more about researching than making a name for himself. This also led to some people taking credit for his work. In fact, most of his ideas were so far ahead of his time that some people even labeled them as crazy.

So, if you want to know more about Nikola Tesla, check out these facts about his life.

1. Tesla Came With A Bang

He was born in 1856 on the 10th of July in the Austrian empire, which is today’s Croatia. It is said that he was born during a lightning storm.

木木 /Pexels | What an electrical entrance!

2. Tesla Was Accused of Cheating

Tesla was so smart that he used to do calculus in his head when he was just 17 years old. This led his teachers to believe that he was cheating but he proved them wrong by graduating one year earlier than his fellow peers.

Cottonbro/Pexels | Tesla wasn’t about to let his reputation be tarnished so easily

3. Tesla Almost Lost His Life to Cholera

Tesla contracted cholera at the age of 17 which left him bedridden for almost 9 months. Although his father wanted him to become a priest, while he was bedridden, he implored his father to send him to engineering school if he recovered. Thankfully, he did just that before going on to become one of the most influential engineers of our time.

4. Tesla Had A Rocky Journey

During his academic pursuits, Tesla successfully secured a university scholarship, never missed a lecture, secured the highest score possible, and passed multiple exams to realize his dream of becoming an engineer. Soon thereafter, however, he became a gambling addict and lost his scholarship and everything he had worked for.

Drew Rae/Pexels | But he was pretty successful in gambling and paid his family back

5. Tesla Dropped Out of School

Tesla was a pretty smart student but he dropped out of college and never finished his graduation. He was so secretive about his personal life that he even cut off communication with his family because he feared how they would react to his failure. He was so successful at going incognito that some people even believed that he died.

A university dropout-turned-famous electrical engineer? Now, that is super impressive.