Tesla — Master of Lightning
Too bad Nikola Tesla didn’t use a good intellectual property law firm, says a US law firm in their advertisement.
Do you know who Tesla is?
Think radio. Think electricity. Think transmitting electricity over long distances. Think - Not on friendly terms with Edison.
Tesla is a Serbian inventor, engineer and scientist.
And do you know why he didn’t hire an intellectual property law firm to protect his patents?
Probably because he is from the Balkans and therefore not as inclined as the rest of the world to think about profit making.
You see, the part of brain that stimulates thoughts about actually making profit has not been used for generations in Serbia. We are generations of people who put emphasis on taking life easy. Why? Because our system was set up so that no matter how much you worked, your profit would be the same. So, we were clever and we chose to sip our coffee and read paper until 10:00 and leave work at 15:00.
That behavior stayed for generations and at this point it is safely situated deep in our blood.
Tesla’s time (1856-1943), however, wasn’t the time of communism but time of Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire. Different systems but basics are the same. No profit making because you are the Empire’s second class citizen.
So, of course, we took it easy. And our profit making part of the brain started to decay right then and there.
Having said all that, it is likely that if Tesla wasn’t from the Balkans he would be more inclined to think about profits, he would probably be paying a hefty attorney fee to a firm like Seed Law while we would be writing our electricity bills to ConTesla, not ConEdison.
Take this post as a lesson that applies worldwide:
For the people in the Balkans — Start exercising the profit making part of your brains.
For the people worldwide — Know who Tesla is. In a world that we live in, bombarded with the sea of information every day, this is one of those rare pieces of information that you would actually read and remember.
Because the mark Tesla left behind is that important.
Comments
Interesantan tekst, evo mog komentara.
Sto se tice Balkanskog nacina razmisljanja tu se potpuno slazem da je citanje novina i pijenje kafe u radno vreme a i posle radnog vremena u kafani (samo sto se kafa tada zameni nekim picem, obicno rakija) osnovni sport i mentalna vezba kojom se vecina nasih sunarodnika bavila u doba komunizma jer je omiljena izreka vecine bila "ne mogu toliko malo da me plate koliko ja mogu malo da radim".
Takav nacin razmisljanja i ponasanja se odrazio i na ekonomsku i politicku situaciju u nasoj zemlji. Do duse bilo je i onih koji su drukcije razmisljali i koji su se trudili da nesto i urade koristeci svoj mozak i u druge svrhe a ne samo kafa-novine ali takvi su zbog rusilackog sistema odavno otisle iz zemlje jer su shvatili da samo negde daleko mogu nesto da urade. Bilo je do duse i onih koji su bili vredni i radni i ostali u svojoj zemlji ali nisu bas daleko dogurali i nisu bas mnogo stvorili bar ne onoliko koliko bi trebalo shodno njihovom radu i sposobnosti.
Sto se tice Tesle ja ne znam da li ovaj balkanski sindrom moze da se primeni na njega s obzirom da je on bio genije i da kao takav ne moze da se poredi sa drugim "obicnim" ljudima ali je sigurno da je bio ekscentrican ili kako se to kod nas kaze cudak i covek na svoju ruku i shodno tome pitanje je koliko ga je novac stvarno interesovao. U ovom slucaju sigurno bi bolje prosao da je imao advokata za intelektualnu svojinu.
Great article, my favorite topic.
As for money, perhaps Tesla didn’t care about it. The genius was happy making the world a better place. I don’t remember him complaining though cash may have made his mission easier.
On the other hand, I hear people from the Balkans complaining about their financial situation all the time. It’s locals’ favorite conversation. The roots of this go deep into our relationship to money. For the most part, being rich in the Balkans has a negative conotation to it.
I wouldn’t say our work ethic is great but probably deserves a C- while our relationship to wealth is a clear F. Leasurly life-style and wealth can go hand-in-hand when a nation works smart. However, in the Balkans, we only got the first part right.
My five cents,
Marko