"Inside every adult there's still a child that lingers. We're happiness merchants - giving people the opportunity to dream like children"

Within the heart of every adult, traces of their childhood remain, quietly persisting beneath layers of experience, responsibility, and age. The world often demands that people outgrow their youthful wonder and abandon the habits of imagination and play, but that inner child never truly disappears. Guy Laliberte, as the founder of Cirque du Soleil and a creative visionary, understands the potency of this lingering innocence. He recognizes that adults, no matter how mature or jaded, retain a yearning for the unfiltered joy and boundless possibility they once embraced as children.

By likening himself and his team to "happiness merchants", Laliberte emphasizes their role as facilitators of joy and wonder, a kind of exchange where performances and spectacles are traded for smiles, amazement, and inspiration. This evocative phrase suggests a business not in material goods but in emotional and psychological currency, appealing to the shared human nostalgia for simpler times, when dreams felt attainable and reality malleable. The opportunity they offer is not just entertainment, but a temporary liberation from routine, a chance to reconnect with curiosity, awe, and spontaneity.

Adults are rarely invited to dream, to step outside the boundaries drawn by practicality and skepticism. Experiences like the circus, theater, or any acts of unbridled creativity act as portals to that lost perspective, giving permission to imagine freely. Dreams are often equated with childhood, but Laliberte suggests they remain a vital part of adulthood, perhaps even more precious for their rarity. In fostering environments where dreams can flourish, and where people are encouraged to see the world anew, these "merchants" play an essential role in collective well-being. They remind society that no matter how grown up we become, the capacity for childlike wonder endures, waiting for a spark, an invitation to emerge, and the chance to dream once more.