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Here's what I didn't put in the book. In the 1960s, my mother refused to accept that my brother, who had a rare early childhood illness that left him unable to speak and showed traits we'd now recognize on the autism spectrum, had no path to public education.

You can have every strong idea your book needs and still lose the reader. Strong material in a weak order never builds. The reader feels the drift even when they cannot name it. They notice they have stopped turning pages.

I wrote a book about pioneers who fix broken systems. Then I started reading other people's books that are still a "work in progress," and watched author after author break their own books in similar ways.

Every person I interviewed for Ahead of Their Time: Pioneers Who Seized Tomorrow, Today, moved through the same five steps.

Most modern-day pioneers (strike that), every pioneer who shares their story with me, starts with this question.

I spend a lot of time digging into research, always asking who noticed the discomfort first, who saw what was missing, and who chose to act. The pioneers I study aren’t loud leaders or polished networkers. They’re problem-solvers who see patterns others miss and push for real change. If you’ve ever felt early, unheard, or frustrated by surface-level fixes, this isn’t a flaw. It’s a signal. Being ahead of your time isn’t about waiting—it’s about naming what’s broken and buildi