Since he was a young boy growing up in the Austrian Empire, Nikola was fascinated by science and numbers. His teachers knew he had a brilliant mind, but Nikola's irregular routines and fondness for playing cards meant that he was kicked out of school before he could finish his exams. However, after working for a spell at the Budapest Telephone Exchange, where he made several clever innovations to their electrical systems, he managed to get a job with Edison Machine Works in New York, U.S.A.