Invisible Heroes

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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 things 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 Steinbeck 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 that first Thanksgiving. You'll shed a tear for the world's loneliest man.

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

Featured Hero

Unlikely Parentage

One year before Tim Paterson developed his “Quick and Dirty Operating System,” the US military created a powerful new programming language called “Ada.” Dozens of books and manuals were written about Ada, and every computer programmer in the world was acutely aware of her. Ada was a stunningly beautiful woman who had walked into their room.

Paterson sold his “Quick and Dirty OS” to Bill Gates who shortened QDOS to “DOS” and used it as the foundation of what was to become the mighty Microsoft empire.

But why did the US government choose the name “Ada?” Unlike DOS, Ada was not an acronym. She was a real woman who died in 1852.

Five short weeks after Ada was born, her mother left her father, believing him “to have his head so much in the clouds that his feet never touch the ground.” Under no circumstances was the daughter of Annabella Milbanke going to grow up and become a worthless romantic like her father! Instead, Annabella insisted that young Ada study ...

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Invisible Heroes is a collection of more than 100 biographical stories written by Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads. You can read a few of these stories in the archives of this web page, but most of them are inaccessible because they're soon to be published in a book.

We create our heroes from our hopes and dreams. And then they create us in their own image. Heroes raise the bar we jump and hold high the standards we live by. They're the embodiment of all we're striving to be.

Do you want to be notified when Invisible Heroes is published? Give us your email address and we'll send you a note when the book is ready. (We solemnly swear not to let anyone else have your address. We detest spam as much as you do.)