Look, he was a tryer, I'll give him that.
He got knocked back year after year (trying to get into university) , until, the year of the magi...1905, when he submitted a couple of theories he claims to have dreamt up in his bed one night, and hit the jackpot.
Then, nothing!
Other than expanding on other scientists theories, and coming up with a few out-there star-treck theories of his own... from 1905 to 1930 he just rewrote his same old patent-office relativity theory,(paraphrased it a few times)...expanded on someone else's discovery in 1921 then settled into scientific celebritism.
Post 1930's he went a bit senile screwing his cousin and began writing about socialism, Zionism, pacifism, and even about himself.
Something he knew about for a change, must have been rather refreshing.
He won a noble prize for his contributory services to theoretical Physics, this and his contributory services to "photoelectric effect", which had already been discovered by someone else , all he did was spit and polish it.
And even then, he only won the Nobel Prize in 1922, after the selection panel in 1921 decided none of the nominations (including his) met their criteria, as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel.
Then after a year of nothing much else surfacing, (talent wise) according to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such cases be reserved until the following year, after loosening the rules a little, at which point a statute was applied and allowed for him to score a noble he would not have otherwise got had something truly talented met their minimal selection criteria. Must have been a quiet year in the field of physics....his parents probably paid them to give it to him, the way they tried to pay his way into college without success until he got published in 1905 after producing a couple of patent office theories, none of which he received the Nobel for.
So, it couldn't have been too fantastic!
Yet, we to this day, think of his theory of relativity when paying tribute to his work.
It's sad in a way, he was forever being knocked back, I think he had incredibly pushy parents, who just wouldn't accept the fact that their 34 year old son required velcro ties on his built-up sneakers...this and was not aware of his own limitations. Ok, he was obviously bright, wouldn't have pulled it off otherwise, but I don't think he was "AS" bright as we are lead to believe he is today.
It was a runner-up award my friend, one they relaxed the rules for because he was the best they had, possibly all they had at the time even though he didn't quite meet their criteria the year before.
Look, he was a trier, i'll give credit where it's due.