YouSaid · the spoken record

Guy Laliberté

lines on the record: 156
first: 2023-10-25
most recent: 2023-10-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Want to open those and start to spray everybody and think. I said, I'm dying. I'm never dying. I said, dying. I will really die in LA. And then suddenly, a fraction of a second because you could see people reacting in soul. And you see the first body talk, but there's suddenly a bunch of people all together give it more. They stand up and it's like, give me more water. Magic moment. We did the show”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then my client go because we have to give a little animation pre show. So I said to my bunch of clowns, okay, just go don't do the things of the pre-show, but you have enough tricks to make them laugh. My one belly clown, one of them is clown. First team is coming, he's coming with an O's a water O's.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then, okay, it's not complete. And the organizers, wait a minute, this star is coming, he's on his way. So we decided to send the clown to animate the place. And you have the mayor, you have like the governor. It's like all the big shebang is there. And there are”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This little kid that usually will break in the window, and the guy was like going park the place in the worst place you could park that type of car. So just that thing was just like, wow, wow, wow, wow. Just that for me was an interesting mission accomplished somewhere. Be able to make that kind of, but the most freaky moment was the opening was in the afternoon and it was so hot. So what? And people arrive and you know all they would. They don't arrive on the dot. It's fashionably late. Five minutes. Oh my God. We were dying just that. It's like they got people. It was like 100 degree people were sweating.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And it was a very interesting because people tell us put the 28 foot nana, like not a 420 foot things. We'll give Job. So everybody a job, the security, parking cars, cleaning, hushers, selling out dog or whatever, everybody that was hired from the two gang there. And actually, I think for a very long time, that was the first time they were not killing each other in the same roof. Anyway, so there's two events that happen that made me laugh. One is about that opening day, which you see people arrive, the big limo, the big mercer days, the big Rolls Royce, and they give the key to the hood”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, downtown LA in a site that is the middle of site, which basically is the middle on one side you have one street gang and the other one you have the other street gang is one of the biggest crime place things that is like murder over the it's just like wait a minute So we end up having to deal with the neighborhood there so on and we have to you know we have two choice either we are a security thing so we decide I've been able to negotiate kind of a truce between the two gangs saying listen I'm coming. I come from the streets I put all my street history behind. I make them laugh you know I did the clown of myself I got the approval why because I said your wife your kids I'll give them job okay other than selling drugs or killing people whatever stealing God, two memorable moments.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of the festival. And please, could you just at least make sure that in your promotion, your generic promotion, you put us. And I said, third, could you make sure we have good press, the big name of Hollywood, on the opening date? But here we are. We are in a little Tokyo, you know, where they put out a little Tokyo. Everybody else is in the forum of that, all the big institution. They threw us in the middle of the worst neighborhood there is little Tokyo.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, listen, that date okay, you understand we're going to a Los Angeles Festival Art Festival super again institutional things, Director of Programming company came late and said, well, we're interested, but we have no money to book you. I said, well, I'm going from Quebec to Canada to put everything on things. And one of my partner was saying, well, let's go to Vermont. What the hell? Vermont would tell you if we will be successful or not. We have to hit the big city, New York or Los Angeles. And we had an opportunity there. So I made a deal with the Los Angeles Festival. I said, okay, I'll go. I'll take my own risk. But please, could I have the opening night?”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And they have been able to service there. And it was just like, again, this was a type of thing. And then 86, we went to Vancouver in one year, we pay everybody the bank and stuff like that. It was all done. And then 87, we hit LA. It was a live or die in LA. Opening night, again, it worked, most died that night.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was ready to go battle with my bank committee and say we should, and actually this philosophy was banks should sometimes take risk, business risk, and not only protect themselves. His principal would do so much money that a portion of our things should be when we fill it to take greater risk over and above what the rules of bank rules is. And that's what he was defending. Actually, he was using my case. And actually this bank that we stayed until I sold du Soleil, we were super faithful to them. And for him, it became the bank that every young cultural enterprise or young things were to go because they made a model out of that.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Being a bit of a joker Totally, totally. But I guess you have to be there at the origin. We came like, we were a storm of color of happiness. And what we're doing were, what people never saw in the circus thing. So we were clearly, we were inspired and we were working hard and we were working on a business plan. And everybody understand if we break that thing, it could be a huge success, but we were just young entrepreneurs that was living everything a young generation have to face when you do business. And suddenly every wall of those people that normally would put a wall in front of kids at the side. And I didn't interview everybody of it, but I would send for the banker point because it became a great, great friend. It was just like, I just believed.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They loved us? They trust us. I think they believe in us. We were upfront, but we had a deal. You know, we had a braid of eight, six months minimum, eight months of each of them with postponed check with the promise that if the cash was coming first, we would pay them faster. My God, this is Angel flying and not only one. This is like 50 Angel assigned. And actually, it was about 250 supplier, whatever, for 500 to 10,000. The biggest one, I think, was 100,000 and the bank.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Just claim, just go into court, then it will trigger all the things. Then, very soon, what we did is I took all the supplier over 10. I said to the bank, first of all, I said, the bank, should I have five, six months? You know, we're doing another tour. We have a contract. They exported 1986 in Vancouver. We have good traction. It's like we're popular, but we're totally, technically, we're broke. So I went on with my director of administration and me, we went to every supplier and made a deal, didn't pay none of them except tree. And then we used the cash. We made a deal, postponed check eight months in 12 checks. All of them, they all accept.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Second call is please. Could you not do check over 5,000? It went down to $500. So he was in. And the last thing we got of him, it was, I think at $25,000 or $30,000 payroll, the last payroll of the season, we went to their said, listen. I know we way over it's like, and the guy said, look at me and said, I'll lose my head. I have no authorization. I did things that I was not arise to do as a director of the bank. I said, if this goes wrong, I'm dead. So, but I said, yeah, but please, you're definitely dead if you don't help me to pay the payroll. And the guy released another 25, 30,000 dollars to pay the payroll. And then we're end of season. And my partner, Danielle, would look at each other. If one, and we have maybe $20,000 cash that we put aside, and we said to each other, if one supplier come and post an action,”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Minimum OPEC scars, and we cannot bail back, you know, so you have to pay cash. And then we have no more cash. We're coming back in Montreal. We know we'll get a little more money and we could reduce that and not overcome everything. But we have to survive that because if we cannot bring a little more money to balance a little bit, we're done. And then who's else? We have no money. Not sell tickets. So the banker, this union bank that we have like, I don't know, $100,000 that year or $200,000 credit line start to allow without approval of this committee. First, it was every Shek were doing. We went over maybe another hundred thousand. Then he said, wait a minute, you know, you're over, you're lying. Yeah. And, you know, instead of telling you, you can't do anymore. He said, please, because you don't do check over $10,000. I said, like, wait a minute. This is a banker telling you. So we do check under $10,000.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Then it's like, what's going on? And we did all kind of thing by page of things. We tried to react, but nothing was working. And this is where Surdam Min is like, what's wrong? Why are we that bad when it doesn't work? To then realize that, yes, there's 2 million people passing an airphone, but the average of stay of people 45 minutes and the other one who stay long, they're honey moon or in there are in the room having their honeymoon or moment. So we understand that the notion of market study, really. But the result of that is we're technically in bankruptcy. And we saw that. So the specific bang, and this is a true story. You know, obviously we were about three-quarter million dollar in deficit at that time. But to arrive there, we had to survive the end of the tour, pay the salary. And if we don't do that, that's it. So we have a list of supplier under $5,000 and over $5,000. We have a payroll to deliver every two weeks. And we have...”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Uh oh, second show, 65 people in the room when I have 75 worker. Okay, second day, 20 tickets. So I went on as I was. What happened? What's wrong? What happened? And then I have a revolt of the artists. We're not going to play in front of 15 people. This is where the ruled of we will never perform. We made a deal with the artist that we will never perform if the number of public is under the number of artists. That was a moment we made a deal like that. But it was catastrophic.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We all prepared for the opening night. There's fully people there, all the politicians, the local people, and then normally. History tells us that the day after the sales tickets increase and we get our end result. Second day, 10 tickets.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Two million visitors, whatever, by month or things like that. That's what the government told us. There's like the biggest tourist destination, Niger Fault. So the way we had no money from a market thing, I have to understand that we were tied. We had little subsidies. We had things, but money was always coming at the end. And at the end, what make the success of entertainment is your marketing campaign. But we were always short on money for promotion. So we were betting always on the first night or creating a PD bar Yum event in the downtown city or whatever to get a little press. And that year, it was going well. You know, Toronto was going well, but we were so fragile in terms of our general budget that one city, you know, we could afford a little hiccup, but a drastic failure would create a drastic financial situation. So where arrived, that's almost the last city of the tour.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, yeah, there was another market. Not enough market, you know, analyze we had on the things was okay. We could do three months for months. But to run a circus, you have to do nine months, ten months over the year, and because of the climate and the population ratio, we have to export. So our first line of exportation was Ontario, Toronto, and Niagara Falls.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Actually. Even there, I recognize that we cannot survive with the ambition we want to build only in our province. We were condemned to export on time.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“To advance money to people who have no money because they have people big bank account that say we'll pay. Government is the same thing as a union. They have big bank account. Anyway, so in this moment, we established the first Israel was not risky because it was all pretty much guaranteed and we end up with 50,000 profit out of the 1.7 million, couple of equipment, but a lot of experience. But obviously it also tell me that we cannot work under the model. We did that because it was a compromise. So we had to go to the market and then we were by ourselves. There was no more grant or no more contract from the government. But we had the prime minister out there that really left out. In 1985 was the International Year of the Youth for Young People, Youth. So that just named me for the one thing like that for me to build all the next second year of Sig Disley under the youth banners. And here we go. We build the Sig du Soleil.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That I have no clue of financing a business or whatever And this is where we, and this is the one bank that gave us our first bank account with a first credit line or advance the money that the government, they try because that's what they get. They're used to that. They use that union would say, okay, found, give money to those people, we found it. We guarantee the money. So it's in their DNA.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Deposit. So most of their members are union workers. There's not a business person in business with them. They're all union. This is a union bank.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, no, no, basically the union have a lot of money, but they use those banks. This is where they put their money in. This is the number one bank in Quebec where the union put their money.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And listen, this is a contract. Yeah, but so, but we end up, and it's very, very funny, we end up in the last financial institution we ever thought we could know or not. That was a little bank that was mainly known to finance strikes. So basically, you know, union that have a lot of money and things went people on strikes, they need a bank that will manage the strike budget.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“With your financing, yeah, yeah, because the government was signing your letter contract, but the payment process of government is a little longer than just signing a check every month. So we have to go and finance and find the bridge, which was banker. And my God, this was like hilarious. I don't know. I think we did the Avery Banker within 100 miles around the city we were in. And basically we're entertainer. They all have a smile, but they all told us no with a smile saying, well, I like your project. But us bank, we need collateral. And actually, we don't know what we'll do with the trapeze or a tent or a crane truck or a counter of hot dog if you fail.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the other year was almost killing. The other year we were technically in bankruptcy. What you don't know in between say, once you have those contracts, well, then you have to go and find a bank. It's one thing to converse the government, but I'm telling you, it's much more difficult to convince banks.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Exactly, exactly, exactly. So this guy was so creative and so business. It was a perfect balance of the two sides of the brain of a person. So obviously this was my other influence.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And we allowed the front page of the New York Times the day after that word hundred thousand dollar. Okay. He was a master of that. And for people that I understand, even if people think that he was abusing freaks and stuff like that, he had decided yes to do business with all the misfit, but he gave them a roof and a community. So that and the other one is Walt Disney. Walt Disney. Oh my God. And I was like, I don't know. We're not on the visual here. But over a napkin, they designed the entire vision of Walt Disney with things that there's a famous napkin drawing that he did.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“PT Barnum obviously people who know and read well very complex character, but it basically invented modern marketing. Talk good, talk bad. Talk about it was this line. And this is a guy that was bringing circus in New York and will make sure that the biggest truck that carried the biggest LFN will have a breakthrough and minimum Times Square.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I got the respect of that. It was not, I had to gain it in the first month because there was a lot of challenge related to that. But at the end, I got the support of the community and the press favorable critics and the love of the public. So once you have those three things in front of whoever, you have an army.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was really always in this war. I was on a mission and I achieved it because what I was carrying on my shoulder is the dream of all the community in Montreal or Quebec that for years was talking about the dream of doing a circus, but never nobody organized it. And I had the credibility of that tribes because I did a street performing festival. So I was able to ally behind me the entire community and I was giving kind of like the carte blanche to make it happen. And without having to go through this collective process of thing, because I believe in consultation, I believe in collectivity, but at a certain moment, I believe also that everybody in an organization have specific responsibility, and mine was to make final decision.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Administration, the people at the administration level, not at the decision level, well, middle level decision level, start to recommend us. I said, no, you have to have that type of programming and all this. This is diversification. They became or defender. And actually, and we had certain allies, but slowly we convinced them by, I believe what they believe was a great creative project, but also we're enthusiasts. We were a bunch of kids. You have to understand. We were coming from the streets and this was a window. And as a wheeler dealer, this is an opportunity. I'm not giving. And they're like, unless the fish is cutting the line, I'm taking that fish out of the pond. Okay.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Financial officer, which is a big manufacture, became a defender. Then the first person was in love with. There were so many, Chakraud director of creation that was like pushing he won our project. So suddenly...”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I develop that relationship with that prime minister, and he fell in love with that. We were his case or the product. And the example of what he meant. So basically the second year he like twisted the arm of the minister of culture. He said, no, if you want that amount, you have to give them. So it was a very important thing. So obviously year second was more being in the by yourself and the business. But this is the beginning of six. This is how it came and that's how it takes place.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We became the success of the summer press-wise, public-wise, and government-wise and prime minister was there. And he said, wait a minute, those are the type of, because you have to understand we're right in the middle of the independent movement. And the prime minister at that time was trying to always say, we're not done for a little bread coming out from the religious things behind them. And we lost everything toward the English rest of Canada in terms of the economy. So this minister was like, believe in the French, Canadian creativity, business skill and stuff like that. So we became.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Were the piece of bread that was thrown in the country to satisfy, to touch everybody with a celebration thing? But at the end, it become the best thing that arrived for us because when we arrived in the big city, because we did play in big city, we arrived so ready.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because they ask us, the minister wants to keep the big city and the stars of big city, they put us on the third row, you know, go in the country.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“One of the biggest skill in business I learned was in the street because of this dangerous environment where you make friends or you run or you're ready to face a more physical reality. So obviously there was a compromise there which was we cannot give you 1.7 million dollars now but let's start with 1 million and we promise you that over the summer we'll be able by exception by exception by exception to get to your budget. So basically I have my 1.7 million dollar contract and with all the hard start we were the star of the summer. You know, everybody was failing huge failure. We fell too in the first month but the beauty of it is we were the product that was going in the country so you know in the countryside. So the first month was a disaster. We lost our big top. It was raining and it was like it was like conflicts. The artist was fighting and like there was a strike. Whatever happened at the beginning, we were in the mother.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, $1 under the million dollar project. And I did work. So I present in black and white everything of my project. I present black and white. I said, this is a project. And there's one, of course, I've seen the document. I said, what is this other document we call it? I said, well, it's not important. It's like this is the 1.7. You don't want it. And I raise it and I'm playing the game full on the game. No, no, no. This is what you get for a million. And eventually somebody will ask me, convince me, and it was part of the game actually. It's all negotiation, colorful negotiation. I call that strategic thinking. Understanding human nature. Okay. And it's very interesting. And I learn all of that in the street, you know, because in the streets is basically, you have a fraction of seconds to decide if you hit and run, if you hit or run fast or talk. But you don't have one minute to converse if there's a situation there.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I sold they would apply us to hire or put in our team somebody that was recognized by a girlfriend, a friend of mine. We play with it, but she was absolutely not the same level. But slowly, and I will always remember the other thing because there was that famous cap of a million dollar contract. It's not Grand. Those were contract negotiating. And my project, what I want to do with some compromise was costing 1.7 million. But to have over a million dollars, you have to do a minister console. So they didn't want to bring a freak like me as a proposed content provider, especially not that minister that doesn't like street reformer. So basically, I will always remember you pitch in front of commissary, the minister, and so I have two documents on table. One big cover callers. And I put a corner there and I have a black and white one. Because they asked me to stay at 980.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The low braid, you were down this food chain. Okay, we're way down the food chain. Everybody get the money. Everybody get the contract and things. And there I am with one other friend that was Rabel Legu, which actually is the real co-founder, is not the other one. The other one came later, but there's one real co-founder that left after the first year. So we engaged ourselves of going pitching to the government. And then there's different level of contract you could get. But there was this artistic director that was in charge of programming, Jacques Renault, that really we had Connect, but I was pushing him to the, he was coming red sometimes. It's not what I'm asking you. You know, we had to fit in a formula. And I'm trying to pitch the first Quebec circus and I'm trying to explain. You believe in him. I said, you will not be able to sell that to the government. I said, no, no, this is the time. And then slow.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“in the high end class. I'm hanging out with the stars, so you're thinking about a government that we're this minister of culture is totally star system thing, you know, in all the different department of culture, you have dance, opera singing, whatever, music, street performing circus was not there. Basically, you have to understand the social reality there's and the mentality of whatever festival government was about pay them a sandwich, they'll entertain you for 50 minutes. Okay, so this is where we started.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's greater success. And then we got the attention of the government because 1984 was a celebration of the 450th anniversary of Discovery of Canada, both celebrating by the federal side and the provincial side. And you have to understand the provincial, we're French Canadian, we're frogs or French fries. And then the Anglo-Saxon on the other side. And obviously the government want to celebrate and both take a position at very political. So there's a lot of money that is thrown for cultural shows activities or things. So special money. So I've been invited based on the success of FRN to depose or propose a project. And this is where that moment I said, well, this is our window. So we build relationship with the director of programming, but we're still, remember, I'm dealing now with the government, the cultural minister that is so...”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The schnau, which means the person that walks on the wire, it became a anton attracts. And we're in a grand finally and suddenly the storm shut down all electricity and we just with the flame and the cannon. Super dramatic. And I still live glues bomb. And there was a big, big quantity of the Quebec street performer. And this is where we look at each other. It was so emotional. And we said, okay, let's think about maybe it would be time to think about creating our own circus. Okay. And this is what inspired me. The first flame of inspiration came. Wow, look at all us together on stage. Imagine under a big time. Start to share that, but obviously starting a serious, far more difficult than doing a street performing festival. So we did a second year in that was 1982. In 1983, we do the second version of it.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And actually, pretty well on, obviously, and again, the last day, the last day of the last show in the arena because all those weeks perform were there, there was workshop. People were learning how to do clowning in the wood, in the mountain, whatever. We organized a very nice program. You know, it was not a big budget, but people showed up. And mostly a lot of my international friends decide to come and visit us because we were booking, co-booking the big paycheck was from the main festival in Quebec City, but I got a good deal if I was getting a deal for them, Quebec. So that justified them to come. And I got them for a good price. But we had that closing show in the arena, which was everybody on the scene together. And where the last moment is the Fanfar is there, and I'm blowing fire. And that moment is a thunderstorm. And we're playing that track that's...”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The Jester, the Speedy Gonzalez guy, I'm always like hands up, talking like that, but with a lot of passion. But we arrive with something. I believe was safe enough, colorful enough. Business wise, maybe, maybe we'll have a good economy impact for us. So we got a shot. We got a shot.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I don't know. You know, it's like, I guess, again, there's no conviction. Like I said, me and Gilles is a charming human being. Always paused, never raising.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, yes, yes, and clan. They're very protective. And you arrive a bunch of people who are in a util cell or maybe dancing naked around a fire, taking substance. And actually, We made a statement that we will assume the perception that we have. So you could imagine, and they had that festival at that time, which is an art festival painting, very touchy, white glove, white glove festival. An institution. And we arrive wanting to close the street and do a street performing festival. So we have to go through all the political level, convince and stuff, and then sponsorship. We're selling our program, sending five dollar little business card size in our program to the merchant, but we have to convince the people to give us a chance. And it becomes a success. And I was like, financially, we lost a little money, but we had the attention of the big city in terms of culture. We brought the merchant was super happy.”
2023-10-25 · The Tim Ferriss Show · #700: Guy Laliberté, Founder of Cirque du Soleil — The Power of Belief, Street Gangs, Wild Tales from Las Vegas, The Dangers of Nurturing Fear, and Dancing on the Cliff · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT