Compare Edison and Tesla; both recognized inventors of power transmission with the one relying on financing to build and install localized power plants and selling them to those who could afford to buy them while the other pursued a Quixotic dream of supplying even greater, nay virtually free power if only he could gain the funds through a sponsoring supporter.
Edison, ever the practical plugger made money from his inventions, his deft, if at times clumsy artisanship serving himself and his successors while Tesla, far more brilliant and driven by a tireless mind made invention his art and died alone with only the company of a white dove who flew in and out his window to feed on the crumbs of the meager crackers that sustained him in his final days; the dove, the ultimate symbol of peace and sacrifice was likely the final witness to the end of a great man’s life in a pensioned apartment in a fine hotel.
When science becomes more art than quest for elegant solution, the goal becomes more mission than destination.