„It is today that we must create the world of the future.“
– Eleanor Roosevelt

“When did I have my first vision?”, I asked myself recently…Looking back, I can say that I always set big goals for myself, but never felt understood in my way of thinking. Even as a child, I dreamed of world peace and worldly happiness rather than a big car or house, and I always thought that everyone felt that way.
It was literally difficult for me to follow a ‘normal’ path. I was trapped in the ideas and routines of those around me for far too long. Only through my studies, travelling and spiritual work I had this feeling of freedom inside of me again which lets me take off into the world of visions and light. And: it is never too late to commit myself to this visionary thinking and feeling.
It gives me an incredible amount of energy to set big goals and follow them, whether in my small business JU_nique, in my work with young people or with my interactions on social media.
It is my vision to motivate and inspire people on social media worldwide – there is always a path that leads to light, I am very convinced of that and I love to share my experiences and expertise.
3 Years of Between Oceans Blog was also a vision of mine and I made it happen, together with 111 people from all parts of this planet I spent three years collecting exciting questions and answers on 37 different topics, which I will re- and upcycle in form of a Between Oceans Podcast in the future.
“Vision is a picture of the future that creates passion.”
– Bill Hybels

I would like to invite you to follow this passion with JU’s 3 questions for May 2023:

👉Are there any visionaries who fascinate and inspire you?
👉What does vision mean to you and which visions have you followed or are you following?
👉If you had all the money and time in the world, what would you do?

👨🏻‍🦳🇿🇼🇬🇧🇦🇺🇷🇴🇦🇹 Richard Hill
Richard is a cosmopolitan – he has lived and worked in several countries. He obtained a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from Nottingham University and a MSc in Agricultural Engineering from Reading University and has had a long and very successful career in the mining industry. We have been neighbors for about 10 years and this has developed into a warm friendship – I admire Richard’s fine and competent manner, his love of reading and learning, his interest in history and his sense of conviviality. I enjoy listening to him talk about his life.

👩🏼🇬🇧🇦🇺🇵🇬🇦🇹 Susan Melton-Hill
Susan is a power woman – she is an adventurous, very ambitious, skilled and initiative lady. Susan has worked as an economist for the ANZ Bank, the Government and then was appointed as an economics lecturer at RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology – now university) and was the first female appointed in the Faculty of Business. She took this position so that she could combine it with children! Susan has lived in several countries – I admire her for her zest for action, her young spirit and her courage and commitment. Susan loves sports and to travel, she plays Golf, Bridge and is a great hostess.

🧑🏼‍🦲🇨🇭🇦🇹🇮🇹🇨🇳 Mario Rossori
I am very honored that t h e Mario Rossori, known under the pseudonym “Poppate”, organizer of the major Austrian music prize Amadeus Award, (2000-2009), music manager and producer is part of my May blog. He has been successfully discovering and promoting talents in the Austrian music industry for over 35 years and when I did my Event Management course (2002-2003), he was also my teacher. I admire Mario for his professionalism, his passion for music, his critical and friendly manner. Mario studied business administration at the WU Vienna and spends his free time with cooking, motorcycling and sports.

👨🏻‍🦳🇿🇼🇬🇧🇦🇺🇷🇴🇦🇹 Richard Hill

👉Are there any visionaries who fascinate and inspire you?

A visionary who has long inspired me is Lee Kuan Yew. His truly altruistic approach to running his country was an inspiration and fine example to many. Also, as he gained power and prestige, he did not direct it to his own desires or needs but maintained his course and led Singapore from being a small country with few resources – other than its people – into a very advanced and civilized county.

Another man of considerable vision was Winston Churchill. While he was born onto a privileged position, he did not simply enjoy his position but committed himself to leading his country. He was quick to recognize that the Nazis were leading large parts of Europe into an evil cycle. He opposed the appeasement approach that many advocated as easy, and instead led his people in the more difficult path of standing up to the increasingly powerful Nazi organizations. He persisted for many years until finally his vision of a better way was successful.

👉What does vision mean to you and which visions have you followed or are you following?

Vision means the ability and willingness to see and communicate a path forward for man that is not conventional or obvious. That path might appear to be wrong or ineffective to others, but for reasons they might not understand initially, it turns out to inspired and effective.

I have a vision that man can access the energy we need to support modern life with using any fossil fuels by harnessing existing sources of natural energy. Some are obvious like sun and wind, but there must be others that are less obvious. I am trying to follow these, but they are really hard to envisage. Fission energy is one that needs a lot of work – but I believe we need to persist with research on this. There might be others too.

👉If you had all the money and time in the world, what would you do?

I would commit myself to mobilizing people to transform the UN into an effective organization (without any person or country having a veto) with the power to root out evil leaders and remove them from office. They would be replaced, in a democratic process organized by the UN, by good leaders committed serving their people and ensuring they can lead safe and happy lives. I would try and set up mechanisms whereby evil and dictatorial leaders who did not serve the needs of their people, but aggrandized themselves, were brought to justice. The UN would have in place a judiciary that had international authority and was independent of political or national influence.

👩🏼🇬🇧🇦🇺🇵🇬🇦🇹 Susan Melton-Hill

👉Are there any visionaries who fascinate and inspire you?

I consider a visionary to be someone who thinks independently and can imagine or construct the future and thereby understand and predict how changes will develop.

Richard Branson in the aviation industry and historically and politically, Winston Churchill and Golda Meier (Israel) have inspired me.

👉What does vision mean to you and which visions have you followed or are you following?

Vision means an ability to create a picture of the future and how I might adapt to this in a productive or meaningful way. I am not consciously following any visions, but I would probably think economically (what this means for me and my family and how could we benefit) rather than globally, for the good of the universe.

When I finished university in the 1960s (& at that time only 2% of our age cohort were given places) most of my male friends had a goal of making money and most were spectacularly successful. In my Economics lectures with classes of about 80, only about 6 were female. At the time I was fortunate to be educated but my career was always regarded as secondary, both by me and by my first husband. When my marriage ended, I retrained as a lawyer and practiced as a solicitor.

👉If you had all the money and time in the world, what would you do?

If I had had the wisdom and knowledge that I have collected over my lifetime (I am now 76 years old) as a young person, I would have worked much harder in school and this would have provided me with wider opportunities. I made sure that my two daughters did this and so far they are both successful. They are both married with families and have exceptional careers. I would also have integrated the opportunity to travel into my career path. I would have tried to excel at everything I did.

I did in fact take two major steps:

(a) Emigrating to Australia from England at the age of 24 years with my then husband. This opened up many more opportunities for both of us. My first husband has been economically very successful. At this time in England (1970s) our career paths may have been restricted because we both came from lower middle-class families and did not attend private (public) schools.
(b) Relocating to Vienna with my current husband in our mid-fifties. This has provided us with huge opportunities to travel, enjoy new experiences, reconnect with our English siblings and our extended families, make new friends, and generally experience and appreciate different cultures.

🧑🏼‍🦲🇨🇭🇦🇹🇮🇹🇨🇳 Mario Rossori

👉Are there any visionaries who fascinate and inspire you?

One of the visionaries who has always fascinated me is Didi Mateschitz. He had the vision to conquer the world with an energy drink from Austria and he succeeded!

👉What does vision mean to you and which visions have you followed or are you following?

I also have visions, even if they don’t go that far, but they are there in every project. I also need to have a vision, otherwise I don’t believe in the project and I can’t conjure up the energy that is necessary to realize it. One vision was to organize concerts in China, and I have achieved that in 2011.

👉If you had all the money and time in the world, what would you do?

If I had all the money and time in the world, I would go on a world journey. I have this vision and I will realize it.