Guy Laliberté built Cirque du Soleil from street performing into a multi-billion-dollar company by pursuing purpose over profit, reinvesting 40% of earnings into R&D, and taking bold bets like eliminating animals and creating permanent shows. His hiring process screens for courage and teamwork, not just skills.
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Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael, and welcome to a special edition of Modeling the Masters. Today's video is brought to you by American Express Canada. They've recently launched their Amex for Business Canada page on Facebook, and it has lots of resources, tools, information, news for Canadian entrepreneurs that I hope you go check out and support the video as well. Now, I believe that the fastest and most effective way to grow your business is to model the strategies of people who've already done what you're trying to do. So today we're going to look at how a young entrepreneur went from sleeping on park benches and entertaining in the streets to make money, how he went from that to becoming a multi-billionaire and a high-stakes poker player and space tourist in his spare time. This is the story of Guy Laliberté from Cirque du Soleil and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.
Guy Laliberté is a Canadian entrepreneur, philanthropist, poker player, space tourist, and the founder of Cirque du Soleil. When Laliberté was 18 years old, he left Canada for Europe to become a street performer. He played traditional Canadian music on an accordion with a hat for donations and slept on a park bench by night. He also met other street performers who taught him how to breathe fire, juggle, perform magic, and walk on stilts before returning home. Unable to find a 9-to-5 job back home, he started a business that would create large-scale street shows. After 3 years of successful shows in 13 Canadian cities, Laliberte wanted to get bigger. In 1987, his company was booked as the opening act for the Los Angeles Arts Festival. He spent all the money he had to get to Los Angeles and prepare for the show. If it didn't work out, he'd have to perform on the streets to get gas money to go home. Luckily for him, the gamble paid off. His performance received standing ovations and ticket sales came flying in. With an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion, Laliberté was ranked by Forbes in 2011 as the 11th wealthiest Canadian and 459th in the world. In 2006, Laliberté was named the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and his company now employs over 5,000 people. Not bad for a hustling entrepreneur who started off sleeping on park benches because he couldn't afford to pay rent.
By taking risks and by tapping into his creative juices, Guy Laliberté was able to go from a homeless street performer into a multi-billionaire. To help you grow your business, here are 3 action items that you can learn from Guy Laliberté.
Action item number 1: Have a greater purpose. Is your goal to make a lot of money, or to change the way something is done? If you look at the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, you'll find that they started their businesses to have an impact. Sure, they had to make money, but it wasn't their primary objective. Strangely enough, if money is your only goal, then it rarely comes to you. But when you focus on a greater purpose, you're much more likely to become successful. The Liberté's goal isn't to make money. It's to touch people, even if it's only for a few hours on a single day. He goes to great lengths to help people open their imagination, be odd like a child, and see the world in a slightly different way. He transformed the circus industry from being large-scale amusement park shows designed to make people laugh to a full-out experience that exposes people to new cultures and ideas. According to La Liberté, we are in a position of financial and social power and we could be agents of change in our society. Without pretension, I believe we could be a nice little gardener who takes care of the garden, and hopefully our neighbor will do the same. Then maybe we'll achieve a better world. Inside every adult, there's still a child that lingers. We're happiness merchants, giving people the opportunity to dream like children. Action Item #2: Foster a creative workplace. Very few entrepreneurs can't benefit from an influx of creativity into their businesses. When you and your team are creative, you're coming up with new ways to solve problems, unique products and services to sell, and interesting ideas to fuel your future success. Think about your own success. Did you have your best ideas when you're in a creative space, or when you were stressed out and overworked? La Liberté believes that if you create a positive place to work, you'll be rewarded with unique ideas that will help you grow your business. He's resisted the urge many entrepreneurs have to go public because he wanted to prevent shareholder pressure for short-term profits. He also invests 40% of profits back into research and development, twice the average for his industry. His hands-off management style allows his team to be as creative as possible without his interference, and he only provides feedback in the final phases of production. According to La Liberté, I believe that the profits will come from the quality of your creative products. 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 in nurturing creativity and offering a haven for creators enabling them to develop their ideas to the fullest. We are each but a quarter note in a grand symphony. Action Item #3: Take Risks. It almost goes hand in hand that to be an entrepreneur, you have to take some risks. You're venturing into the unknown and are creating new products and services. But when you're betting on yourself, then there's no better investment in the world. If you commit to seeing things through until you reach your goal, You'll have the confidence to take the necessary risks and move mountains to accomplish your vision. Laliberté isn't afraid to take risks. He attributes this quality to his early years as a street performer, where he had to be creative and daring to stand out and to survive. His first big risk was to change the way a circus was run. Gone were the dancing bears and lion tamers. He would create an animal-free circus. He then introduced the concept of having a permanent show. How could a circus survive without traveling? Laliberté would show them. He continued to bet on himself, believing that the risk would pay off, and he was right. According to Laliberté, 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. I've seen many successful people fail after they start fearing they might lose what they've built. We stop growing if we start being afraid of taking risks and if we start diminishing our creative pertinence. We should always aim at doing more creative endeavors, not in terms of volume, but in terms of more creativity and more sharing. I don't believe in pitfalls. I believe in taking risks and not doing the same thing twice.
So remember, have a greater purpose Foster a creative workplace, and take risks. To finish up this video, I wanted to share one of my favorite true stories about Guy Laliberté and some of his best quotes.
Laliberté understands the importance of getting the right people for his company. Once a year, Cirque du Soleil engages in a hiring campaign to bring new and freshly energized talent on board. For 16 weeks, anywhere between 60 and 70 candidates from around the world are gathered together to be tested. Pushed to their limits, Cirque encourages candidates to do things they probably have never done before, evaluating not only their core competencies, but also their values, generosity, courage, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Laliberte wants to hire people who are risk-takers, just like himself, and who fit with the company's core values.
Thank you for joining me for another edition of Mile in a Master's. If you guys liked the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I'd also love to hear what you guys have to think if you want to leave a comment under the video. And thank you to American Express Canada for sponsoring the video. Please go check out their Amex for Business Canada Facebook page and stay tuned for the next episode.
