#inspirationdate | a chai with Costa Georgiadis

After hearing Costa Georgiadis deliver a brilliant lightning talk at Vibewire’s fastBREAK - with a selection of inspirational speakers on the theme ‘Tasty’ - we took a short walk from the Powerhouse Museum to Le Depot in Ultimo and sat down to chat.

In short, the man is a genius. He emanates an amazing amount energy that is highly, highly contagious. And he is one of the warmest human beings you'll ever have the pleasure of spending time with. Here are some of the insights he left us with:

• Working 9-5 is not great for humans. Like school, it's an industrial leftover
• You should experience your definition of success in your everyday life - not after hours or while on holiday
  
• Set the bar high - have conviction, commit and don’t lower your standards
• Be aware of things you can’t change, and release, breathe, let them go
• Good will is personal, business is not. Our ideas have worth and our time is valuable
  

When Costa speaks he uses loads of metaphors, analogies - in fact he's quite the wordsmith, using language to help people see things in a different light. For example he mentions that he's been building a 'herb maze' NB. not a 'herb garden'. He has found that changing the vocabulary he uses can actually re-shape things in people’s worlds - in this case creating mystery, intrigue and fun around a new garden.

Another example comes from a story Costa told about trying to convince the ABC to extend the remit of Gardening Australia to include a special on the future of farming. He simply framed the farm as the 'kitchen garden of the city' and suddenly had traction!

Check out Costa on ABC's Gardening Australia, with four incredible specials in 2012 on Indigenous Australia, the Future of Farming, Australian Immigrants and Harvest.