What Did Nikola’s Parents Want Him to Become?

Milutin wanted his surviving son to be a priest, fearing that his fragile health would not survive the military or what he assumed were the rigors of intensive engineering study.

However, he launched his own rigorous mind-training campaign, drilling Nikola with “all sorts of exercise, such as guess one another’s thoughts, repeating long sentences or performing mental calculations.

Even when Tesla excelled in school in engineering, his father pushed him to join the priesthood. Here’s another paradox in Tesla’s early life – a father devoted to religion while his son loved science.