Dare to bet everything on tomorrow

Guy Laliberte was born in 1959 in Montreal, Canada, into a middle-class family. His mother was a nurse and his father worked for the Alcoa Company of Canada. A public relations manager. Although this family is not very wealthy, it gave him the most precious thing, which is the freest growing environment. All of this made Laliberte's unique character and his execution ability without hesitation in taking action for his pursuits.

As a teenager, Laliberte began performing the accordion on the streets of Montreal to earn some odd expenses. The accordion he played was found in his father's closet. When he first saw the accordion that had been gathering dust in the corner for a long time, he was very curious and fiddled with the keyboard with his hands. He was delighted to find that it could still be used. Makes a beautiful sound. Laliberte couldn't wait to ask his father if he could give him the accordion. The father looked at his son who was full of joy and expectation, and nodded kindly and agreed. In this way, an accordion slowly opened up Laliberte's different life.

At the age of sixteen, Laliberte decided to pursue performing arts as his lifelong career. When he was in college, the performances he participated in caused a sensation in the school several times, so he decided to drop out of school and devote himself wholeheartedly to the artistic performance he loved. After that, Laliberte hitchhiked and began the first magical journey in his life - traveling through Europe. This experience greatly opened the eyes of the young Laliberte. He met many street jugglers, jugglers, stilt walkers, and fire-eating performers. These folk skills deeply attracted him, and also deeply inspired a young man's curiosity and longing. Although he regretted that he could not learn all those juggling skills at once, those magical skills remained in the young Laliberte's heart as a special mark.

Laliberte returned from his travels in 1979. He was 20 years old when he returned to Canada. He initially found a job at a hydraulic appliance factory, but worked only three days before losing his job due to a labor movement. Later, Laliberte chose to join a stilt-walking performing arts group led by Keels Sticklocks at the time. Soon, the young Laliberte formed a team of his own to perform street performances, using a youth club as the activity center. He and Gilles Sticklocks organized a summer show in the riverside town of northern Quebec, Canada, with the help of Daniel Gautel, who would later become Laliberte's business partner. . In 1984, Laliberte successfully persuaded the Quebec government to sponsor his performance group with US$1.5 million to perform for Canada's 450th anniversary celebration. Laliberte recalled: "It was a really difficult experience. We encountered many of the problems that a big circus might encounter for the first time. First we had difficult negotiations with the government, and then the tent collapsed on the first day of our performance. The more difficult thing is how we can attract audiences to watch our performances." Laliberte said that he was able to win simply because they were young, dared to try, and had the confidence to conquer everything. This was also the reason why they survived. The transformation this performance brought to Cirque du Soleil was decisive. Not only did Cirque du Soleil earn a net profit of US$40,000, but what was even more gratifying was that it became a dazzling new star in this nationally acclaimed celebration. Because this time the audience is no longer just scattered local residents of Quebec, but the entire Canadian nationals. Since then, Laliberte has taken his circus on regular nationwide tours. Cirque du Soleil gradually became Canada's Cirque du Soleil.

In 1987, Cirque du Soleil, which was only three years old after its establishment, won the qualification to perform at the Los Angeles Arts Festival. This was also regarded as the most critical step in the development of circus. When an official from the Quebec government initially recommended Cirque du Soleil to Thomas Schumacher, director of the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Schumacher rejected it without hesitation, saying, "We are an arts festival, we don't need a circus." The frustrated Laliberte was unwilling to lose this opportunity. He went through all the troubles and handed the video of the Cirque du Soleil performance into Schumacher's hands. After watching the video, Schumacher flew straight to Quebec. After watching several more Cirque du Soleil performances, he immediately made a decision that changed the fate of Laliberte and Cirque du Soleil. Among the shows performed by Cirque du Soleil that Schumacher watched, his favorite was "We Reinvented the Circus". At the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Cirque du Soleil presented exactly this show. To be able to perform at the Los Angeles Arts Festival, Laliberte spent almost all his money.

For this performance, almost all the savings since the establishment of Cirque du Soleil were used up. Although Cirque du Soleil's profit situation has improved significantly, it still seems to be unable to make ends meet compared with the gradually increasing costs of performances. If this performance is unsuccessful, the circus will return home to its old camp in Quebec, and may even disappear and never exist again. In the end, Laliberte defied all odds and made Cirque du Soleil's name appear on the performance list for the opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Arts Festival. Laliberte still looked a little heavy when he recalled this, "That night was a huge gamble. What I placed on this bet was everything I had. If our performance failed, we would be so embarrassed that we had to go back to Quebec." All the travel expenses were gone.” Of course, Laliberte and all the circus members won the bet, and the show became a huge success, and this success was unprecedented in the history of Cirque du Soleil, not only with more than 150 viewers. With a net profit of 10,000 US dollars, they have also received a large number of performance invitations, which means that their future performances will go abroad. The success of the performance in Los Angeles also turned Cirque du Soleil into a new focus. People began to have a new understanding of the circus performance that had declined and gradually faded out of people's sight. What people saw was not a circus performance composed of lions, elephants, and fire. These traditional circus shows such as rings, but imagination and creativity. What makes Laliberte and the circus even more unexpected is that they have become a hot topic in Hollywood, which means that their influence has touched the world's top entertainment platform. To this day, when Laliberte talks about his success, he still insists on mentioning the performance in 1987 again and again - because without 1987 and without Los Angeles, Cirque du Soleil's subsequent journey may not have been so smooth and smooth.

Freedom comes from independence

The success of the Los Angeles show has brought new development opportunities to Laliberte and his circus. The famous American Columbia Pictures came to ask for cooperation and wanted to make a movie based on the story of Cirque du Soleil. After signing the contract, Don Steele, then president of Columbia Pictures, held a social gathering and invited many celebrities and industry figures to attend. At the meeting, he announced the conclusion of the cooperation. The social gathering included circus stars, but Laliberte was not given a seat. "He seated all my stars, but left me alone." Although it took a long time, when Laliberte recalled this experience, his inner dissatisfaction always showed up inadvertently. "What they wanted was the copyright to our story and our trademark, and they were acting like they owned Cirque du Soleil. So I walked out of that announcement and immediately called my lawyer and told him I was going to stop this. It can be said that at the critical moment, Laliberte discovered that this was not a fair cooperation, but that the other party was using business tricks to buy everything in the circus that Lalibert had worked hard to build. After this incident, Laliberte came to a realization. No matter what kind of cooperation he had with any party in the future, he warned himself that he must maintain his independence in business operations and avoid outside influence as much as possible. Laliberte and his long-time business partner Daniel Gossel agreed that they should keep the company's equity within a controllable range. Because only on the basis of absolute equity guarantee can we make decisions freely and take decisive measures when necessary, even if it involves taking greater risks. It is this kind of independent and free spirit that allows Cirque du Soleil to constantly achieve new transcendence.

In view of the lessons learned from cooperating with Columbia Pictures, even if the famous tourist destinations Santa Monica and San Diego later extended warm invitations to Cirque du Soleil, Laliberte was limited to signing short-term agreements with them. This year, Cirque du Soleil received US$4 million in activity funding support, and its net profit reached US$1.5 million. Soon Cirque du Soleil received another call from Steve Wynn, known as the god of the entertainment industry. Wayne told Laliberte that he could provide a theater specifically for Cirque du Soleil in his hotel, and said that Laliberte had absolute creative control over the shows performed in the theater. Laliberte is happy with this partnership.

Soon, Laliberte is preparing to stage Cirque du Soleil's new work "Mystère" there. This work is different from those previously staged in Las Vegas. Its overall tone is relatively melancholy.

Wayne was not sure whether this kind of entertainment play could be accepted by the audience, so he did not agree to perform it in the venue he provided, and said to him in a warning tone: "If you stage "Mystère" here, Las Vegas The car driver will crucify you." But Laliberte persisted, and slowly, Wayne reluctantly agreed. "Mystère" opened in Las Vegas in December 1992, but by March of that year, tickets were sold out. Laliberte said meaningfully: "'Mystère' allows us to realize a completely different cognitive standard for this industry, which brings us operating capital, influence and credibility."

In 2001, Laliberte made another explosive move. He bought the shares of Cirque du Soleil from his long-time business partner Gausser for an amount that has not been disclosed to the outside world. This further consolidated the absolute controlling position of this maverick CEO. To this day, he already owns 95% of the circus.

The "Ka" show is a turning point in Cirque du Soleil's performance repertoire. In this show, the combination of technological investment and high-tech talent performance has raised Cirque du Soleil's performances to a new level. , it is said that it took four years to develop this theater from idea to performance. So its $165 million price tag is also unprecedented. A very important aspect of the "Ka" show is that it has changed the law that the stage can only be flat for thousands of years, because the giant manipulator can control the 360-degree rotation of the stage. A Chinese acrobatic person commented after watching the Cirque du Soleil performance: "The "Ka" show combines technology and art, and the stage can be raised, lowered, pushed or even completely erected at will. The wonderful combination of Chinese martial arts, opera and acrobatics The clever combination of live performances and computer projections, the interest of hand shadow performances and the visual impact of huge projections have broken all our understanding and imagination of stage and acrobatics, making it incredible.” In order to achieve the crazy cheers from the heart of the audience. Laliberte spared no expense in developing new plays. Cirque du Soleil's famous "O" show is also one of the shows that almost combines the highest superhuman performance with the most advanced technological investment. It creatively turns the performance stage into a vast ocean in an instant, allowing the actors to move from ten to ten. Jumped from a height of 1 meter. In Laliberte's own words: "We are not reinventing the circus, but repackaging it in a more modern way." For Laliberte, all this is just his persistence and enthusiasm. Just pursuing their simple dreams.