Nikola Tesla when he had his huge breakthroughs in electrical equipment. He was then the chief engineer of the Belgrade electric utility. So a credible individual, Belgrade isn't some shithole village.
1. First people were ignoring him and not responding when he was writing electrical people and showing them how his designs worked.
2. Then he started travelling around Europe demonstrating his inventions to electrical engineers and possible utility customers. They all said he was a charlatan and they 'proved' it by showing that his inventions violated the laws of physics. Those laws would later be rewritten.
So Nikola Tesla he offered to them they can take apart his devices and assemble the devices themselves and hook up whatever test equipment they wanted. The other 'scientists' and 'engineers' wouldn't do it, they said they knew it was fake and didn't want to give credibility to his scam. He travelled around Europe for 5 years demonstrating his devices with no luck convincing anyone.
3. Finally he was discredited in Europe as a charlatan who was trying to steal money from gullible people, and his name wrecked he was forced to leave Europe.
4. He came to America and tried demonstrating his devices without much luck at first. Then ended up working as a ditch digger for 2 years to pay his costs of living and buy stuff for more experiments. Luckily he stayed in New York City, and rich people had fun coming to his laboratory and seeing crazy electric stuff. Some of the free thinkers in New York City had made friends with him.
Finally some of the Wall Street titans ended up coming to his studio in New York and seeing it, and they put serious money behind him. There was then this big political battle between the existing electric companies and utilities who were trying discredit Nikola Tesla.. versus the Wall Street titans who were backing him. The Wall Street guys ended up pushing it through.