Ladies and Gentlemen... this story will amaze and delight you!

Who would have thought that a young college kid who dropped out of school to become a street performer by walking on stilts and blowing fire could become a billionaire! Even a Millionaire is incredible, but a Billionaire?

Back in the early 1980's, Guy Laliberte did just that. He dropped out of college at 19 to work as a street performer in Canada. Guy put a troupe together which traveled from Quebec to the Los Angeles Arts Festival. While performing there, they were discovered by casino mogul, Steve Wynn, who brought the Cirque du Soleil to Las Vegas. Guy's love of just clowning around has generated $2.5 billion dollars in revenue!

As with any entrepreneur, the path wasn't quite as easy as it sounds, as it had its fair share of challenges and road blocks to overcome. The idea began to take shape in the early 1980's in Baie-Saint-Paul, a little village tucked in to the north shore of the St-Lawrence River. Guy, the leader of a young band of entertainers who walked on stilts, juggled, danced, breathed fire and played music, constantly impressed and intrigued the local residents. However, they were never successful in making enough money to stay solvent. Guy often had to receive unemployment insurance from the government just to keep from going hungry.

In 1984, during Quebec's 450th anniversary celebrations of Jacques Cartier's discovery of Canada, the provincial government sought an event which would bring the festivities to Quebec. Guy convinced the organizers of the event that the answer was a provincial tour of Cirque du Soleil performers, and it has not stopped since! From then on, the Cirque continued to improve their show, performance by performance, one step at a time, until today, it is a story of a remarkable bond between amazing and talented artists, and their spell bound spectators from around the world.

In the early years, the Cirque struggled and several times the troupe almost disbanded because of a lack of cash. At one point, as part of a publicity stunt to generate attention and hopefully government funding assistance, Guy walked 56 miles from Baie-Saint-Paul to Quebec City on stilts! The stunt worked, and the troupe received an arts financing grant which helped employ the troupe for another year.

Eventually, they made their way to the Los Angeles Arts Festival. They had to succeed in L.A., otherwise, they did not have enough money to get their team and equipment back to Canada. Fortunately, the trip paid off in L.A. where they were discovered by Steve Wynn, the owner of several casinos in Las Vegas. The rest of the story is history.

Cirque du Soleil expanded through the 1990's into the 2000's, going from one show to 19 shows in over 200 cities on every continent except Antarctica. Today, the shows employ 4,000 people from 40 countries and generate an annual revenue exceeding $810 million dollars! The multiple permanent Las Vegas shows alone play to more than 9,000 people every night. More than 90 million people have experienced Cirque du Soleil worldwide.

Today, several more shows are in development, along with a television dealand the possible venture into other mediums such as spas, restaurants and nightclubs. If a bunch of clowns can succeed in business to the tune of $2.5 Billion, what's holding you back?

Solid Gold Performance...

Is the result of GETTING customers who love what you love, and KEEPING them coming back by giving them the greatest show on earth.

How Did Cirque Become a Gold Mine? By Superior:

Innovation...     Production...     Talent Management...

Click on Function... Insert a Do It in your Strategic Plan... then Just DO IT!

Your Thoughts and Observations...

"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." ~ Guy Laliberte