Tyler Perry Blew His Life Savings, Slept in His Car & Failed 6 Times...Then Came the 7th Time

His name was not always Tyler Perry.

He was born Emmitt Perry Jr. in New Orleans, into a home so abusive that at sixteen he changed his first name just to put distance between himself and his father. '

He moved to Atlanta at 22 with $12,000 in life savings, a dream, and a play he had written himself.

The first run drew 30 people.

The Worst Bet He Ever Made

 The play was called “I Know I’ve Been Changed.”

It was a gospel musical about survivors of child abuse finding their way back through faith, and it was, in many ways, the story of Tyler Perry’s own life. He had poured everything into it  -  his $12,000, his time, his whole heart.

He rented the theater, printed the programs, and waited for Atlanta to show up, and yep, only 30 people showed up.

 He lost it all.

He was homeless, sleeping in his car and, when he had a few dollars, a room at the YMCA.

For the next six years, he scraped together enough money from odd jobs to stage the play again. And again. And again. Each time, nearly nobody came. Six runs. Six failures. Six years. 

Knocking on the Wrong Doors

Here is what Tyler was doing wrong, though it took him years to see it:

He was trying to reach the theater world  -  the mainstream, the critics, the general audience.

He was knocking on doors that were never going to open for a gospel play written by an unknown Black man from New Orleans about abuse and redemption. The people who controlled those doors did not know his story and did not particularly want to.

But there were people who did.

Deeply.

Black churchgoing communities across the South had been living versions of that story for generations. They were hungry for something that reflected their lives, their faith, their pain, and their survival.

Nobody was making it for them, or so they thought; Tyler had been making it all along  -  he had just been trying to sell it to the wrong crowd. 

Finding His Tribe

 In 1998, Tyler stopped knocking on mainstream doors and went looking for his audience where they actually were.

He went to churches.

He went to community centers and gospel events.

He booked the House of Blues in Atlanta and got the word out through Black church networks.

He found the urban theater circuit  -  what people called the Chitlin’ Circuit  -  and he worked it and people lined up around the block.

 The Fox Theatre. A national tour sold out in Dallas for three weeks straight and so he added a Monday night show.

With the profits he wrote a new play, introduced a character . . . named Madea, and never looked back.

Tyler Perry Studios today is 330 acres, built on the grounds of a former Confederate army base and is now one of the largest studios in America and the first owned outright by an African American.

The pivot was not rewriting the play. He had done that six times. The pivot was finding his real audience.

The Takeaway

Most entrepreneurs, when things are not working, go wider - they soften the message, sand down the edges, try to reach more people. Tyler Perry tried that for six years from the seat of a car.

The answer was never more people. It was the right people. There is a famous idea in business called the smallest viable audience - find the fewest people who will love what you do so much they tell everyone else. So niche down. Then niche down some more. Your people are likely out there, waiting for someone who actually speaks to them.

Go find them.

Steal This Strategy

📚 Book: The Small Business Bible: Steve’s bestselling book that helps you go from dream to reality.

 🛠️ Read: 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly. The essay that changed how entrepreneurs think about audience. You do not need a million customers. You need 1,000 people. That’s it. Free, five minutes, unforgettable.

 📺 Watch: The Tribes We Lead  -  Seth Godin TED Talk. Seventeen minutes on why the internet has made niche audiences more powerful than mass markets ever were.

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About Steve

Steve Strauss is the best-selling author of The Small Business Bible (and 17 other books), Inc.’s small business columnist, a lawyer (non-practicing), and an entrepreneur. He sold his last venture, TheSelfEmployed.com to Mark Cuban & Zen Business. Need a ghostwriter or a newsletter for your business? Contact Steve!