and I'm seeing patterns with these great persons. (I suppose I need to read more autobiographies to corroborate these observations.)
Both Nikola Tesla and Malcolm X -- diverse though their fields and their roles in history -- have already two things in common that I've identified: (i) a ridiculous passion for reading, and (ii) unstinting discipline.
Malcolm X on reading:
Anyone who has read a great deal can imagine the new world that opened. Let me tell you something: from then until I left that prison, in every free moment I had, if I was not reading in the library, I was reading on my bunk. You couldn't have gotten me out of books with a wedge. Between Mr Muhammad's teachings, my correspondence, my visitors - usually Ella or Reginald - and my reading of books, months passed without my even thinking about being imprisoned. In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life.
"People don't realise how a man's whole life can be changed by one book."
Tesla on reading:
Of all things I liked books best. My father had a large library and whenever I could manage I tried to satisfy my passion for reading. He did not permit it and would fly into a rage when he caught me in the act. He hid the candles when he found that I was reading in secret. He did not want me to spoil my eyes. But I obtained tallow, made the wicking and cast the sticks into tin forms, and every night I would bush the keyhole and the cracks and read, often till dawn, when others slept and my mother started on her arduous daily task.
Me? -- though I may credit myself with a love of books since early childhood, discipline is like the last ingredient missing during my genesis or something. I am so horribly ill-disciplined, I really, truly frequently marvel at how I have passed through the institutions of learning in my life. Had I not been born privileged, into a family and environment that was conducive to my learning, I probably would have been a drug addict and wasting life away or something, ahah.
Challenge of 2016: I have been trying to (figure out how to) revolutionize my mind/body/soul so as to bring discipline into my life.
Tesla on discipline:
... I began to practise self-control. At first, my resolutions faded like snow in April, but in a little while I conquered my weakness and felt a pleasure I never knew before -- that of doing as I willed. In the course of time this vigorous mental exercise became second nature. At the outset, my wishes had to be subdued but gradually desire and will grew to be identical. After years of such discipline I gained so complete a mastery over myself that I toyed with passions which have meant destruction to some of the strongest men.
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