Nikola Tesla remains a legendary physicist and engineer who led to an important innovation that has continued serving billions of households around the world. One of his innovations, Alternating Current, was one of the best innovations that would have made Tesla one of the richest billionaires in the world, but he threw his chances away.
At the time of Nikola Tesla’s death, he lived in a hotel where one of his friends and partner was paying the bills. Tesla made the mistake of tearing a royalty contract that could have made him a billionaire to save his partner, which made him die poor without any penny.
But still, Nikola Tesla has remained a legendary innovator, resulting in him being recognized by fellow inventors who respected his contribution.
How Nikola Tesla Would Have Been the Richest Billionaire in The World
Nikola Tesla was a clever student while growing up in Paris. He developed an interest in Physics, and he would calculate Calculus overhead.
When Nikola Tesla was 28 years old, he relocated from Paris to America. Tesla moved to America with four cents, a poetry book and a recommendation letter that was written to a famous businessman in America, Thomas Edison.
Edison employed Tesla, and their collaboration worked for a while before things fell apart. Tesla started to work for Edison General Electric, which earned him $18 a week. Edison assigned Tesla the task of redesigning and improving Direct Current, upon which he would be offered a bonus of $50,000. He achieved the assignment within two months, but Edison did not keep his end of the deal.
Instead, Edison offered to raise Tesla’s salary by $10 per week, which Tesla rejected and quit immediately. Edison invented Direct Current in 1880, which connected homesteads to electricity. The innovation was useful, but it had several limitations.
Nikola Tesla invented the Alternating Current, which was the better option by far. Tesla signed more than 300 patents, which brought him fame and would have made him the world billionaire before Tesla tore them and threw them away.
Tesla royalties were so huge that, at one point, they were worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The royalties are estimated to have made Tesla the richest person in the world.
Once Tesla formed the Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing company, he had the best deal.
Once the capabilities of AC spread, Tesla was approached and signed a generous deal for his innovation. By the time Tesla was turning 35, he had become a millionaire from the royalties he was getting. Edison was not happy with Tesla’s achievement, and he tried several demonstrations to bring down Tesla’s company.
Due to the war by Edison’s company, Tesla’s partner’s company was in debt, which made his partner beg him to relinquish his royalties to prevent the company from going bankrupt. Westinghouse, Tesla’s partner, was surprised when Tesla tore the contract without any concerns, saving his company from going bankrupt.
As a result, Nikola Tesla threw away a chance of being the richest man in the world. Nikola Tesla died a poor man because of failed projects. In today’s inflation, Tesla would have had a net worth of more than 300 million dollars from his patents alone.