The story of how Guy Laliberte went from being a broke street performer to a space traveling circus CEO with a personal net worth of $2.6 billion, is amazing and inspiring.
Born in Quebec City, Canada, Laliberte developed a passion for performance arts at a very young age and began producing his own performance arts events in high school and became a proficient accordion and harmonica player.
He would eventually drop out of his first year of college to follow his dreams. His first job was "busking", which is another word for a traveling street performer. He played music and juggled on his own until he was accepted into a performance troupe that hitched around the world putting on street shows that featured fire breathers, sword swallowers, acrobats and stilt walkers.
Money was non-existent so eventually Laliberte and he had to stay on the streets. So he returned to Quebec to accept a full time steady job at a hydro-electric power plant. Three days into his new steady job and the plant workers went on strike and Guy was fired. Taking this as a sign from God, the newly unemployed and broke Laliberte swore to never work a normal job again and instead to devote himself 100% to performance art.
In 1983 the government of Quebec offered a $1.5 million art grant to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Jacques Cartier's discovery of Canada. In order to impress the government and win the grant, Laliberte's partner Gilles Ste-Croix walked 56 miles from Baie-Saint-Paul to Quebec City, ON STILTS! The stunt worked and the partners used the $1.5 million to create and launch "Le Grand Tour du Cirque du Soleil". This first version of Cirque was both a critical and financial success, producing a modest $40,000 profit. In 1987, Guy put everything on the line when he took his entire circus to the Los Angeles Arts Festival to drum up new business. He spent every penny both he personally AND the company had, to set up shop in California for several months. Years later, Guy admitted that had the show been unsuccessful, he would not have had enough money to bring his troupe back to Canada. Fortunately the show was a smash hit and lead to $2 million worth of future contracts.
And as they say the rest is history. In 1992, Laliberte landed what would become the opportunity of a lifetime when casino mogul Steve Wynn signed Cirque to perform at Las Vegas' Treasure Island Hotel. The first show Cirque produced, "Mystere", went on to sell out every single ticket in its first year and is still one of seven shows in permanent residence at Treasure Island.
Thanks to the success of "Mystere", Guy Laliberte and Cirque du Soleil were the hottest show in Vegas. The also had no contract excluding them from setting up shop at other venues. Between the 1990s and 2000s, Cirque du Soleil expanded at a furious pace around the world. Having started with one show in 1990, Cirque would eventually perform for more than 100 million spectators in 300 cities around the world. Today, Cirque du Solei has over 5000 employees, $1 billion in annual revenue and $250 million in annual profits. Along the way Guy Laliberte has earned himself a personal fortune of $2.6 billion!!! The Vegas shows have a 97% sell out rate and produce 60% of Cirque's annual revenues. Mr. Laliberte still owns 80% of the company and has full creative control of each of his 10 traveling shows and 10 permanent shows, around the globe.
In addition to being a multi-billionaire circus CEO, Guy Laliberte is a passionate philanthropist, space traveler and professional poker player. Laliberte's "One Drop" foundation is dedicated to giving poor people access to clean water and is funded by a personal donation of $100 million by Guy himself. In September 2009, Laliberte became the first private Canadian space tourist.
