INVISIBLE HEROES 133 Stories You Were Never Told Roy H. Williams Preface Heroes are dangerous things. Bigger than life, highly exaggerated and always positioned in the most favorable light, a hero is a beautiful lie. We have historic heroes, folk heroes and comic book heroes. We have heroes in books and songs and movies and sport. We have heroes of morality, leadership, kindness and excellence. And nothing is so devastating to our sense of wellbeing as a badly fallen hero. Yes, heroes are dangerous to have. The only thing more dangerous is not to have them. Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They are tattoos on our psyche, the embodiment of all we're striving to be. We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they create us in their own image. This book doesn't profile the famous athletes, entertainers and political leaders whose stories you know by heart, but heroes whose tales were never told, whose exploits drifted like fog into the darkness of obscurity, whose deeds bounced like erasers off the chalkboard of history when the teacher's back was turned. We dedicate these pages to the Invisible Heroes - many of whom were invisible only because of the color of their skin - others, because their fame loomed so large in our minds that we could not see beyond it. America remembers John Steinbeck only as the Nobel Prize-winning novelist of Grapes of Wrath, Cannery Row, East of Eden, and Tortilla Flat. But within these pages you'll find the powerful letter he sent to just one man; a letter far more revealing than any book he ever wrote. You'll discover an obscure Welsh monk who inspired foggy, dull England to rise up and take over the world. You'll learn the truth about the hero of the first Thanksgiving. You'll shed a tear for the world's loneliest man. And sprinkled among these immortals you’ll find a few personal heroes of my own - men and women whose influence on my life was more than they ever knew. We bring these heroes into the worldwide spotlight to receive the ovations they deserve. But we don't pretend it makes up for the silence they endured. Are you ready to meet the Invisible Heroes? Roy H. Williams New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Founder, Wizard Academy On the Horizon “There is a holy mistaken zeal in politics as well as in religion.” - The Letters of Junius, 1769 - 1771 “The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to bed in the streets, and to steal bread.” - Anatole France, 1844 – 1924 “Men who believe themselves to be good, who do not search their own souls, often commit the worst atrocities. A man who sees himself as evil will restrain himself. It is only when we do evil in the belief that we do good that we pursue it wholeheartedly.”- David Farland, 2001 If History repeats itself, as it often does, Western Society is in danger of becoming self- righteous, sanctimonious and insufferably judgmental. You don’t want to see this happen. Neither do I. My hope is that you and I - with open eyes and soft words - might be able to mitigate this fast-coming trend. I recently completed a study of societal trends that have repeated themselves for the past 3,000 years. Pendulum, the book that resulted from this study, was released a few months ago. The basic premise of Pendulum theory: We see the world through the lens of an entirely different set of values every 40 years. We become a different people. We are pulled 20 years up from the tipping point to the zenith of a “We” (1923 to 1943.) We swing 20 years down to the next tipping point (1963.) Tipping points are interesting times. We are pulled 20 years up to the zenith of a “Me” (1963 to 1983.) We swing 20 years down to the next tipping point (2003.) Eighty years is a complete cycle but there are only 40 years between the extremes. (The 1943 zenith of “We” to 1983 zenith of “Me.”) We’re nearly halfway up to the next zenith of “We" (2023.) 2011 is 1931 all over again. But instead of being gaga over a thing called “radio” we’re gaga over this thing called “online.” A new set of values every 40 years... On the other side are the values of “Me,” the individual, unique and special and possessing unlimited potential. On one side are the values of “We,” the team, the tribe, the group working together, staying connected. “We” 1. …demands conformity for the common good. 2. …applauds personal responsibility. 3. …believes a million men are wiser than one man, “Two heads are better than one.” 4. …wants to create a better world. 5. …is about small actions. 6. …desires to be a productive member of the team. “I came, I saw, I concurred.” 7. …admires individual humility and is attracted to thoughtful persons. 8. …leadership is, “This is the problem as I see it. Please consider the things I am telling you and perhaps we can solve this problem together.” 9. …strengthens a society’s sense of purpose as it considers all its problems. “Me” 1. …demands freedom of expression. 2. …applauds personal liberty. 3. …believes one man is wiser than a million men, “A camel is a racehorse designed by a committee.” 4. …wants to achieve a better life. 5. …is about big dreams. 6. …desires to be Number One. “I came, I saw, I conquered.” 7. …admires individual confidence and is attracted to decisive persons. 8. …leadership is, “Look at me. Admire me. Emulate me if you can.” 9. …strengthens a society’s sense of identity as it elevates attractive heroes. “Me” and “We” are equal-but-opposite attractions that pull our perspective one way, then the other. Western society swings like a pendulum from one set of values to the other every 40 years with the regularity of an old and reliable grandfather clock. “Me” and “We” values are equally good, but we always take a good thing too far. If history is to be our guide, the next 20 years will be when we move from our agreement of mutual brokenness, “I’m Not Okay – You’re Not Okay,” to embrace a self-righteous indignation, “I’m Okay – You’re Not Okay.” Sanctimonious vigilante-ism will become popular as indignant leaders demonize their enemies and rally their followers by appealing to their inborn sense of rightness and social obligation, “Let’s clean this place up and to hell with compromise. They are entirely wrong and we are entirely right. They are stupid. We are wise. They are evil. We are good.” The last time we went through this, America formed a committee in Congress called the House Un-American Activities Committee (1938) which later watched with glee while Senator Joseph McCarthy destroyed countless careers by recklessly branding his enemies as “Communists” and creating the infamous blacklists. This sounds a bit far-fetched, doesn’t it? I know it does. I'm writing because I want you to be able to look back and recall how absurd this all sounded when I first told you what was on the horizon if history can be trusted. Our best and highest hope to avoid the dark side of the zenith of a “We” is to remember and value our heroes, those valuable icons of the “Me.” To that end, I’ve gathered 133 stories of heroes you’ve probably never heard. Each of these “everyman” heroes is presented in his or her most favorable light. You’ll even find a few wicked people you previously assumed had no “good” in them at all. Yes, some of these stories are about villains who made horrible, tragic mistakes. But my hope is that you will be able to open your heart and stretch your mind to embrace the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “Every man is entitled to be valued by his best moment.” You are about to read a series of “best moments.” Come. The future awaits us. The Power of Labels Even When They're Wrong Christian Jürgensen Thomsen was a young man interested in archaeology so when the Danish government of 1816 needed someone to climb into the attic of Copenhagen’s Trinitatis Church and sort through the rubble that had collected there, Thomsen was their man. Upon entering the attic, Thomsen reported random items in “dust and disorganized disarray, hidden away in chests and baskets, among bits of material and paper. It was total chaos.” Sounds like my attic. Yours too, I’ll bet. The first thing young Christian Jürgensen Thomsen did was to organize the antiquities according to their material: stone in one pile, bronze in another, iron in a third. When the public was invited to an exhibition in that same church loft in 1819, this was the first time the false division of the past into three “ages” was ever used. “So familiar has Thomsen’s tripartite division of the past into a Stone, a Bronze and an Iron age become, so complete the authority it has acquired, that we easily forget its comparatively recent vintage and attribute to it a degree of reality that it scarcely has a right to.” – Historian Robert Ferguson Ferguson goes on to say “Stone Age,” “Bronze Age” and “Iron Age” are false labels adopted by people looking for categories where none exist.