Far beyond the meritless lackluster of many of his contemporaries with whom he competed for funding BUT they obtained at his expense.
He was cheated by other inventors who were his contemporaries. Most notable in the literature were Marconi, Edison, and Westinghouse. Marconi even had patents voided because the inventor was Tesla, not him.
He could have been a much more successful engineer had he not encountered those criminals who pass themselves off as inventors by that stolen valor which were both his accolades and potential investments.
Then to add insult to injury upon his passing the FBI on direction of the pervert director J homo Edgar Hoover stole all of his paperwork from his safe. So much for posterity.
Today is National Inventors Day.
It happens each February 11 and it gives us pause to remember inventors like Tesla and other who have set themselves apart with great creative genius despite the riff raff among their numbers.
Try to remember Nikola Tesla and all that he could have been had he not encountered the lying, cheating, stealing scum competitors and ultimately the thieving federal law enforcement entities of the United States of America.