"We're 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"
About this Quote
There is a kind of polite arrogance in Guy Laliberte's insistence that yesterday's success is expendable. It is the voice of a builder who treats momentum as a liability: if you keep repeating what worked, you stop being an artist and start being a vendor. Coming from the businessman behind Cirque du Soleil, that posture is more than inspirational branding. It is a strategy masquerading as ethos.
The line "risking what was our success yesterday" quietly reframes risk. Most corporate risk-talk is defensive, meant to reassure investors that experimentation will be contained. Laliberte flips it: the real danger is letting yesterday harden into a business model. The subtext is an indictment of industries that optimize the life out of creativity. By calling new ventures "unknown territory" twice, he borrows the romance of exploration - a myth that makes uncertainty sound like destiny instead of volatility. It works because it recruits identity: "We're adventurous" isn't a description, it's a membership test. If you're on the team, you crave the unknown; if you crave stability, you're already out.
Context matters here: Cirque succeeded by refusing the usual circus playbook, then had to defend that edge as it scaled. The quote performs a balancing act between artistry and enterprise, using the language of creative hunger to justify continual reinvention. It's not anti-profit; it's anti-complacency. The challenge becomes a renewable resource: a way to keep growth from looking like selling out.
The line "risking what was our success yesterday" quietly reframes risk. Most corporate risk-talk is defensive, meant to reassure investors that experimentation will be contained. Laliberte flips it: the real danger is letting yesterday harden into a business model. The subtext is an indictment of industries that optimize the life out of creativity. By calling new ventures "unknown territory" twice, he borrows the romance of exploration - a myth that makes uncertainty sound like destiny instead of volatility. It works because it recruits identity: "We're adventurous" isn't a description, it's a membership test. If you're on the team, you crave the unknown; if you crave stability, you're already out.
Context matters here: Cirque succeeded by refusing the usual circus playbook, then had to defend that edge as it scaled. The quote performs a balancing act between artistry and enterprise, using the language of creative hunger to justify continual reinvention. It's not anti-profit; it's anti-complacency. The challenge becomes a renewable resource: a way to keep growth from looking like selling out.
Quote Details
| Topic | Art |
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