PHOTO: A bit of wisdom from many years ago has transformed Sydney agent Giorgio Koula’s career and life outlook in general. Photo: Gregg Porteous
The son of Greek immigrants, Giorgio Koula wasn’t planning on a real estate career – until a shift as a waiter took an unexpected twist. Now director at Stone Inner West, Koula credits his outlook on life to lessons he learnt from a Taoist monk.
Can you paint a picture of your early life for us.
I grew up in the ‘burbs in Rockdale. My parents were Greek immigrants. They were both from the Peloponnese in southern Greece. They didn’t know each other before they came to Australia but they met through mutual friends. It was a very traditional upbringing. My parents were extremely hard-working, like many immigrant families. Mum worked at the HPM power point factory. Dad was a plumber at the Sydney Water Board. My older sister and I needed to understand Greek. We used to spend every Sunday having picnics at Ramsgate beach.
What was your big break in real estate?
I always wanted to study psychology. When I was in Year 12, I had a casual job working as a waiter at Doltone House at Sylvania Waters. I was called in to work one shift for a Liberal Party meeting. I remember John Howard was prime minister at the time and he was there that night. At one stage, I could hear noise coming from one of the other rooms, so I went to investigate. There were auctions taking place. It seemed really exciting, with people bidding against each other. At the time, I didn’t realise that the auction was only the final part of the process. I spoke to the auctioneer, Kevin Clay, and he offered me a job. I worked for him for nearly four years. After he sold the business, I did my time working in property management and sales before I ended up in Double Bay, working at Sotheby’s for six years.
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