Guy Laliberté never went back to school, but that adventure would become the world famous Cirque du Soleil. Since founding Cirque when he was just 24 years old, Laliberté has not only changed the modern face of the circus, but has also become one of the richest men in Canada. Worth an estimated $1.5 billion, Laliberté was named Ernst & Young’s 2007 Entrepreneur of the Year for turning his vision into a global empire. Today, more than 50 million people the world over have seen a Cirque du Soleil production.
Until 2010, Laliberté will have his hands full with the opening of three new shows and a special Christmas production. “Our biggest goal is to continue to force ourselves to always start our creative work on a white page and not take advantage of past successes and challenging ourselves,” he says. Just how did this one time street performer turn a group of young buskers into a performing troupe that has become a global phenomenon and a billion-dollar enterprise?
“It was just an adventure, and I was planning to go back to school and have a regular life. Originally the dream was about traveling and developing a job that would permit me to travel. And I decided to go into street performing because it was a traveling job; it would let me go around the world.
We had every problems starting a big top could have. The tent fell down on the first day. We had problems getting people into the shows. It was only with the courage and arrogance of youth that we survived. The sun stands for energy and youth, which is what I thought the circus should be about.
Business is difficult. But it could be approached two ways: Seriously, or with the same way you’re doing your job, with entertainment aspect, with pleasure, with fun. And we decided to try to make it as fun that we do our creativity. I believe that the profits will come from the quality of your creative products. Since the beginning, I’ve always wanted to develop a self-feeding circle of creative productions: The positive financial returns from one show would be used to develop and create a new show, and so on.
I believe in nurturing creativity and offering a haven for creators, enabling them to develop their ideas to the fullest. With more and more talented creators being drawn to Cirque in an environment that fulfills them, these are ideal to continue developing great new shows. I like to not be too involved in the beginning and during the process so as to keep this fresh look and be able to give constructive recommendation on the final production.
We’re not afraid of risking what was our success yesterday in order to explore some new field. We’re adventurous. We like the challenge of unknown territory, unknown artistic field, and that’s what stimulates us. We didn’t reinvent the circus. We repackaged it in a much more modern way. I have seen many successful people fail after they start fearing they might lose what they have built. I don’t believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.
You know, in life you always have to give yourself some sort of challenge and for me the game of poker, because of the mathematics, the personality aspect of it, I feel very comfortable in it. It’s a great experience. I have a lot of shows here in Las Vegas, so in my free time, I go into the poker room and play there. In life I’ve learned one thing; if you want to be good you have to connect with the best people. So I got very close to the high-stakes players here. I get to watch them and play with them a little bit.
I am blessed for what I have, but I believed in it from the beginning. Today, the dream is the same: I still want to travel, I still want to entertain, and I most certainly still want to have fun.“
