Do you have a pioneer mindset?

Dive into Nikola Tesla’s autobiography and discover 5 observations to empower any creative/innovative mind.

👋 Dear creative. Here we are, June is rolling in, and taking much-needed breaks awaits each of us in our own way. Thank you all for reading and for joining, once again, this newsletter’s musings, reflections, and growth.

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A little context for this post:

I have been wanting to collaborate with

Andrew Smith

, for some time now. I’m a big fan of his writing and dedication to enlightening minds. We've bonded over art, language, and creative reflections since we discovered each other’s writing (pilgrim Substack vibe). When I reached out with the idea of exploring Nikola Tesla: his creative process and his devotion to improving human communication, I knew our exchange would uncover fresh angles on his legacy and character as a pioneer.

💽 It’s a duo piece, like a vinyl. Below is side A, and on Andrew’s Substack, we have side B. You can read Andrew’s take on Nikola Tesla, with a strong focus on his forward-thinking, his ability to effectively communicate ideas for profit, and also the consequences of not communicating enough… It’s a treat!

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I walked into the library searching for vintage cookbooks for a food project, but instead, I found myself drawn to a book about Nikola Tesla. I knew the legend but had never explored beyond that. The blue cover of his autobiography caught my eye, and something pulled me back to the shelf. I left with books on food and Tesla’s story. That’s how it all started: an appointed encounter between a creative and a pioneer.

☕ Grab some chilled tea or coffee, and let’s go!

1. An encounter with Nikola Tesla.

2. 5 observations for creatives.

3. End note… what about you?

4. Are you Tesla curious?

✦ Did you miss the last post? Oh, well, be like water…

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© Keva Epale-YCL

📘 A book about imagination, dedication, and obsession.

Nikola Tesla was born in what is now Croatia. He was an engineer and inventor of many electrical devices, some still used today. The most renowned tribute is the Tesla car, brought to life by Elon Musk. I still wonder how he got away with calling it "Tesla", but that's another topic.

The inner life of a vivid mind

Nikola Tesla was a deeply creative mind. In his autobiography, My Life: My Inventions, he brings us into his world—his passion for thinking, the bubble of his family life, his dedication to invention, and his awareness of the responsibility that comes with great power. His life was a vision in motion. From childhood, he recalls how tragedy brought him moments of strange solace, and despite the odds, he found a sense of grace in pursuing his visions.

• While reading the book, I was amused most of the time by his way of seeing things. His candid spirit and vivid creative fire were refreshing. I now understand better how abundant he was with ideas. But also his self-reflection, and obsession with finishing his inventions. All thanks to learning more about his childhood and his parents.

• Without saying too much about the book, I want to point out his profound love and admiration for his mother. He considered her an inventor. She was the one creating and improving household tools, knitting, and designing objects by hand in her home. And she had a phenomenal memory. She was the daughter of an important family with several generations of inventors. We can see the lineage there. He stated that if she had not been so isolated from the modern world, she could have gained recognition. On the other hand, his father was a preacher and a writer. He was eloquent, disciplined, and brave in all ways. He often talked to himself and made funny jokes. His father wanted him to follow in his path and enter the clergy, but Nikola was adamant about studying engineering and science. These two inspirations shaped a unique character and set of beliefs in Nikola.

• Now, he was also marked by the death of his brother, the prodigy of the family. He witnessed the scene as a child, and it shifted his perception of life, reality, and perhaps even urgency. He later said that, for many years, the vision never lost its strength in his mind. His brother was brilliant, and the loss of a child devastated his parents. Despite his accomplishments as a child, he grew up struggling with confidence. What a paradox and training.

One anecdote struck me deeply and highlights the power of mental perception — the mind can be seen. He shared with us a story from his childhood:

One day, the aldermen passed through a street where I was playing with the other boys. The oldest of the venerable gentlemen, a wealthy citizen, stopped to give a coin to each of us. When he reached me, he suddenly paused and commanded, "Look me in the eyes." I met his gaze, my hand still outstretched to receive the valuable coin, when, to my great dismay, he declared: "No, you will get nothing! You are too intelligent."

I was fascinated by this scene. Surprisingly, I understood his evolution in inventing, mind power, and business rollercoasters better. As a child, he already had a vivid mind and an eye for things beyond appearances. He had wit and experienced a sense of reality that very few inventors are ever trained to perceive. His mind bubble was a prospective and daily nurturing space. His ability to see things was advanced, sometimes even otherworldly. Leonardo da Vinci is known for conceiving detailed and extraordinary inventions. Tesla was also an inventor of character. His devotion to creating devices to ease human interactions had meaning. In hindsight, he seemed to have a profound love for what humanity holds as most valuable: mind power and the world of ideas. He believed that human connection could be vastly improved if only well-trained to serve using these great powers. He had stumbled upon a truth any creative can resonate with: the power of the mind to create.

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Who is a pioneer?
A pioneer is someone who is among the first to study or develop something.
We have all benefited from the work of a pioneer. We have been influenced by their audacity. On a more personal level, we may have met one, grown up around one, or even been one ourselves. As a result, we are connected to the impact of pioneering minds through our own stories and beyond.

© Keva Epale-YCL

💪 5 empowering observations for creatives

While reading the words of Nikola Tesla, I was hooked by his methodology, his dedication, and the sense of greatness he had cultivated since childhood. He devoted his life to stacking inventions for a future he could already envision—through concepts, ideas, and the ways he engineered them, using the materials and funding available in his time. And yet, many of these inventions would be perfected later on.

1. Nikola Tesla had a vivid imagination
   It is fascinating to see how he thrived within his thoughts, imagining his inventions fully before beginning the actual work. He spent time in solitude to think and train that vivid mind of his. He had an imagination beyond convention and shared how, as a child, he could vividly experience images, and sometimes he could not distinguish them from reality. He was able to train his mind to this level of imagination thanks to peaceful and quiet states, which allowed him to develop his imagination muscle.
   
   🎨 As creatives, we value that bubble of inspiration that guides us into creating. Those moments may resemble leisure, but they often contain the most important part of the work, capturing inspiration and dwelling within it. Additionally, the creative state is one of relaxation, one that propels us into clarity, play, voyage, and more play. Such a pioneering mind like Tesla was a creative mind that used that imaginative state to imagine/create.
   
   🧠 “I do not rush into actual work. When I get an idea, I start at once building it up in my imagination... I change the construction, make improvements, and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop.”
   — Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions” (1919)
   

2. Is his methodology a creative masterclass?
   He was immersed in his studies and inventions. He used the power of visualization before creation. He used to wake up at 3 am, work for 20 hours a day. He had the routine to have long daily walks that promoted deep thinking, sometimes solving problems while walking in silence. He was adamant and went the extra mile in his creative process and execution afterwards.

   
   🎨 As creatives, these habits may seem extreme or not, but we each have our routines shaped by our life stories, goals, education, and craft. Whatever way you choose to create, one thing we can learn from Nikola Tesla is his unwavering desire to be fully immersed in the act of making. It may be perceived as extreme, yet the results speak for themselves; his legacy is something we still experience today. I felt inspired by his commitment to going the extra mile. Without trying to replicate his exact rhythm, I appreciate the idea of infusing that energy, of a creator, of an inventor, into my routine. Good work takes time. And even more than time, it takes rhythm.

   
   ⚡“No effort could be too great to be spent on this undertaking, no work too hard, for all that we do under compulsion or constraint is impoverished, it takes away from the force and energy we need for our task. There is no better way to be industrious than to be completely absorbed in what we do.”
   — Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions” (1919)
   

3. An obsession with completing projects
   An obsession with finishing what you start. Nikola Tesla devoted his time, energy, funding, and entire existence to his work. Vision is certainly a powerful motivator. Paving a path for pioneering ideas, as he did, shaped his character across science, philanthropy, business, human interactions, and more. Yet his obsession poured all his finances, energy, and relationships into the grand vision he carried. It is quite alarming to see how he lacked the funding to complete many of his projects. Some of his most ambitious work remained unfinished because of limited resources and a lack of support.
   
   🎨 As creatives, finishing projects indeed holds great value. At the same time, it is just as important to allow projects to unfold at their own pace because external conditions often must align for them to become a reality. We live in an era where many barriers to starting a project have been lowered. We have more tools and opportunities to push things forward. And yet, like the pioneers before us, including Tesla, we still face the challenges of securing funding and finding support. As a word of comfort, it's about doing the best you can with what you have and having a passing-the-baton mindset.
   
   🔋 "My project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead of time."
   — Tesla, on his wireless energy system
   

4. The engineer and the pioneer
   For Tesla, invention seemed to be the most important fruit of the creative human mind. He created frenetically for human evolution, to ease human interaction. He often spoke about the Human family and repeatedly warned humanity about the potential misuse of his inventions. While reading his book, it became even clearer to me that he would have concealed any groundbreaking invention if it had the potential to derail humanity from its noble course. The man of science was paving new ways and raising the bar of what was considered pioneering at the time. It often meant convincing again and again that his research was worth the effort. These ideas were sci-fi, and sometimes even for us today, yet they became foundational for the technology we experience now.
   
   🎨 As creatives, the idea that our work could pioneer a field and shape a new creative identity is not absurd. We may or may not appreciate AI, but these new tools are undeniably shifting identities in creation. They are pushing the lines while also reminding us where the fine lines of creativity truly lie. The engineering of our arts and crafts is also an interesting standpoint. Our work is a series of repeated gestures, experimentations, mannerisms, expressed visions, and somewhat mathematical yet organic in the making. Can we dare to call ourselves engineers? Our work today, taken as a collective whole, is the sci-fi of a previous generation.
   
   🔑 “The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
   — Nikola Tesla
   

5. The creative and the entrepreneur
   It is true, Tesla was eloquent, and he embodied his inventions. No one could speak about his work the way he did. Yet, despite all of that, he often found himself in need of funding and support. He was deeply absorbed in invention and less involved in business. Many of his inventions were never patented because he believed they should serve all of humanity. That was remarkably progressive for his time; in that light, he also pioneered a form of philanthropy through science. Still, his generosity came at a cost. He was taken advantage of, and although he was known for his published work, journalists often misspelled his name for years, replacing the “K” with a “C,” which was quite strange. Some of his inventions were even credited to other inventors. In short, it was not easy for him to protect his ideas or communicate them with the mastery and polish that more well-marketed and business-savvy inventors achieved.
   
   🎨 As creatives, it is not easy to stand out. You may have the best idea, product, art, and more, but it takes more than talent, skill, vision, and desire to stand out long term, especially today. It would be comforting to think that the craft alone is everything, yet as creatives, we also have to find ways to mutualize our artistic skills with marketing and branding to bring our work onto the radar of the right people for us. Despite the odds of what could go wrong, I would say: stay true to your vision(s), keep progressing, own your craft, and think about the big picture—your work as a whole and as a brand, with all that it implies and allows. That’s when we can start entering the game of this era more fairly. Having that first, solid conviction and playful vision is the foundation for everything else to come. And yes, we need to have a mindset for business and wealth creation.
   
   💰 “Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries, enabling mankind to have a little easier life.”
   — Nikola Tesla

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End note… magnetism and what about you?

In Nikola Tesla’s flourishing and prosperous well of ideas and his desire to improve humanity, we can find many traits of the pioneer mindset. A drive for the self, in service of a better Human. Nikola Tesla was a profoundly creative mind who elevated science and technology in ways we can all be inspired by, or at least relate to, especially in his unwavering dedication and ownership of his inventions. It was a journey often marked by loneliness, deception, and the usurpation of his ideas. Yet it was a resilient path, and perhaps one he was uniquely prepared to take and lead. I remember an anecdote from his autobiography: Tesla's lab burned down in 1895, in New York City. It was a devastating fire, destroying all of his equipment, notebooks, and experimental models. He was devastated. How do you recover from such an event? Well, he bounced back as usual, thanks to his routine of walking and thinking. In the process, he had a breakthrough and stumbled upon a new pivotal invention: the Tesla Coil.

There is a Tesla magnetism that goes beyond the facts of his inventions. The artistry of Tesla, in devoting his life to his craft despite all odds, is undeniable. Many artists have paved their way as pioneers by committing themselves to an ideal of what art should represent in their time. The pioneer mindset is a unique one. Many times, they move forward for the vision, for the joy of creating, despite circumstances and conditions standing against them. Yet, they push through and believe they can achieve and make their crazy ideas real.

What do you think of the pioneer mindset for creatives?

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🤩 Creative awe

• 💡 Have you heard of the Tesla coil? (It is one of his most famous inventions—a high-voltage, high-frequency transformer that creates powerful electrical discharges. These appear like crackling bolts of lightning, both scenic and cinematic. Tesla stumbled upon the idea of the healing properties of electricity in the body after losing his lab in a fire. This film explores and unpacks the aftermath of that discovery, diving into the possibilities of the Tesla Coil concept, using electromagnetic fields for healing, and its implications in modern medicine, particularly in low-frequency therapies.)

• 🗃️ The story of Tesla (A deep dive into Tesla’s story and why he ended up living alone, with very little money, but a profound love for his cat. Plus, how his inventions and reputation evolved in the light of competitors and life events.)

• 🎟️ 9 actors who have played Nikola Tesla (From David Bowie to Ethan Hawke, Nikola Tesla has been portrayed in many styles. It’s quite interesting to see how his pioneering character and life story are represented with both detail and entertainment. These portrayals often exaggerate his image as a successful inventor, but also highlight the cost of his determination to carve his path.)

Creativity is in every little curious experimentation.

Congrats, you made it to the end! I hope you enjoyed this voyage into Nikola Tesla’s mindset and body of work. For me, it was a lot of fun and educational.

If you enjoy this letter → 💖 put a heart on it and feel free to share it with peers, friends, and family! It helps more people discover this space and support the creative effort.

Until next time, envision well 💭
Keva

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💽 Next stop: Side B of the vinyl

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