hi I’m Evan Carmichael and welcome to a
special edition of melina masters
today’s video is brought to you by
American Express Canada they’ve recently
launched their em extra 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 however from that to becoming a
multi-billionaire and a high stakes
poker player and space tourist in his
spare time this is a story of guy
laliberté from Cirque du Soleil and the
top three lessons and you can learn from
his success
Guy Laliberte is a Canadian entrepreneur
philanthropist poker player space
tourists 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
hot 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 nine-to-five job back home he
started a business that would create
large-scale street shows after three
years of successful shows in 13 Canadian
cities a llevarte 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 the 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 dollars ally birthday was
ranked by forbes in 2011 as the 11th
wealthiest canadian and 450 ninth in the
world in 2006 a llevarte was named the
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year
and his company now employs over 5,000
people not bad for hustling entrepreneur
who started off sleeping on park benches
because it couldn’t afford the pay rent
by taking risks and by tapping into his
creative juices Guy Laliberte was able
to go from a homeless street performer
into a multi-billionaire to help you
grow your business here are three action
items and you can learn from guy
laliberte action item number one 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 our
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
belieber today’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 the Lubar tape 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 given people the opportunity
to dream like children
action item number to foster 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 are
stressed out and overworked a llevarte
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 forty percent 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 laliberté I
believe that the prophets 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 number three take
risks it almost goes hand in hand it 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
the seen things through until you reach
your goal you’ll have the confidence to
take the necessary risks and move
mountains to accomplish your vision
laliberte isn’t afraid to take risks he
attributes this quality to his early
years as a street performer or 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
with the dancing bears and lion tamers
he would create an animal-free circus
he then introduced a concept of having a
permanent show how could a circus
survive without traveling alley birthday
would show them he continued to bet on
himself believing that the risk would
pay off and he was right according to
Laliberte were 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 have
seen many successful people fail after
they start fearing they might lose what
they have 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 work place and take
risks to finish up this video I wanted
to share with my favorite true stories
about Guy Laliberte and some of his best
quotes
Laliberte 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 fresh
energized talent on board for 16 weeks
anywhere between 60 and 70 candidates
from around the world are gathered
together to be tested push 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 laliberté 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
dish of modeling the Masters if you guys
liked the video please give it a thumbs
up below I’d also love to hear oh 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 your business canada facebook
page and stay tuned for next episode
you
special edition of melina masters
today’s video is brought to you by
American Express Canada they’ve recently
launched their em extra 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 however from that to becoming a
multi-billionaire and a high stakes
poker player and space tourist in his
spare time this is a story of guy
laliberté from Cirque du Soleil and the
top three lessons and you can learn from
his success
Guy Laliberte is a Canadian entrepreneur
philanthropist poker player space
tourists 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
hot 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 nine-to-five job back home he
started a business that would create
large-scale street shows after three
years of successful shows in 13 Canadian
cities a llevarte 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 the 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 dollars ally birthday was
ranked by forbes in 2011 as the 11th
wealthiest canadian and 450 ninth in the
world in 2006 a llevarte was named the
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year
and his company now employs over 5,000
people not bad for hustling entrepreneur
who started off sleeping on park benches
because it couldn’t afford the pay rent
by taking risks and by tapping into his
creative juices Guy Laliberte was able
to go from a homeless street performer
into a multi-billionaire to help you
grow your business here are three action
items and you can learn from guy
laliberte action item number one 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 our
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
belieber today’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 the Lubar tape 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 given people the opportunity
to dream like children
action item number to foster 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 are
stressed out and overworked a llevarte
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 forty percent 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 laliberté I
believe that the prophets 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 number three take
risks it almost goes hand in hand it 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
the seen things through until you reach
your goal you’ll have the confidence to
take the necessary risks and move
mountains to accomplish your vision
laliberte isn’t afraid to take risks he
attributes this quality to his early
years as a street performer or 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
with the dancing bears and lion tamers
he would create an animal-free circus
he then introduced a concept of having a
permanent show how could a circus
survive without traveling alley birthday
would show them he continued to bet on
himself believing that the risk would
pay off and he was right according to
Laliberte were 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 have
seen many successful people fail after
they start fearing they might lose what
they have 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 work place and take
risks to finish up this video I wanted
to share with my favorite true stories
about Guy Laliberte and some of his best
quotes
Laliberte 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 fresh
energized talent on board for 16 weeks
anywhere between 60 and 70 candidates
from around the world are gathered
together to be tested push 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 laliberté 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
dish of modeling the Masters if you guys
liked the video please give it a thumbs
up below I’d also love to hear oh 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 your business canada facebook
page and stay tuned for next episode
you
Please follow and like us:
Be First to Comment