Mathew Knowles, center, and students Antonio Polanco Lee Janu Flores demonstrate a lesson on thinking outside the box as Professor Richard Matthew, right, looks on. Photos by Karen Tapia
Mathew Knowles shares advice with students
Destiny's Child was all about female empowerment and the man behind propelling the brand to stardom was Beyonce's dad and the group's manager Mathew Knowles.
The entrepreneur, marketing expert and record producer shared his tips for success during a special conversation with Richard Matthew, professor of urban planning and public policy, Feb. 25 as part of UC Irvine's first Power of Music and Social Change class.
As part of his presentation, Knowles invited two students — music major Antonio Polanco Lee and urban studies major Janu Flores — to take part in a demonstration in which he had them step into a box and try to move around.
"This is life right here. What are you hitting as you move around in this box?" Knowles asked the students. "You're hitting walls. This exercise is thinking outside of the box."
He explained that people often are trapped in their boxes with others who are like them.
"We pick people just like ourselves to be in our box," he said. "If you are a hater, guess who you're going to pick to be in your box? Another hater. Seriously. This is life. We've been conditioned. … Most of us are boxed-in thinkers. We've been conditioned on why we can't do something. We can't do it because we're poor. We can't do it because we're Black. We can't do it because we're women. We can't do it because we're LGBTQ. All these reasons why we can't do it. Since we were kids, we've been conditioned: You will never be able to do that. So all we do is get inside of this box and we hit walls all day long with others just like us."
But, when you step out of the box, there are no walls, Knowles continued.
He advised students to follow their passion and work hard at it because if you're passionate about what you do, it won't feel like work.
That's what Knowles does, and he encourages his superstar daughters, Beyoncé and Solange, to do so as well. He attributes their successes to their team's strategy, focus on image and vision.
"I don't want to take away from Beyoncé's talent because she's exceptionally talented," he said. "And, I don't want to take away from her passion because she's exceptionally passionate, but it takes a lot of work. Her mother created the Destiny's Child image with House of Deréon (a ready-to-wear fashion line). We started from zero and sold it for $75 million."
Matthew asked Knowles about his books, including The DNA of Achievers, in which he outlines the importance of passion and vision, a work ethic, team building, planning and his "talk-to-do ratio."
"You talk about how you have to be willing to learn from failure, to think outside the box, to be a visionary and the need to give back," Matthew said. "That is very compelling."
Oftentimes, when you are a visionary, Knowles said, "the biggest mistake that most people ask others is, 'I have an idea, what do you think about this idea?' Visionaries don't ask what you think of our ideas. We say what we need from you."
For example, a visionary thinking about opening a hair salon would say, "I'm opening a hair salon and I need you to tell all your girlfriends to come to it," he said.
In fact, he owned a successful hair salon called Headliners in the 1980s in Houston that touted its short wait times. "Our client base was all professional women who couldn't afford to be in a hair salon for three and four hours," Knowles recounted. "We cut the time in half and charged three times as much. We made our first million in 1984."
Though he grew up poor, Knowles said his parents always told him to dream big and pursue his passion and be a visionary.
"I grew up on a dirt road with an outhouse and now I live in two cities and I'm grateful," the 73-year-old cancer survivor said. "Life is not just about money. It's about joy and happiness and fulfillment."
Students were grateful they were in class to hear Knowles impart his wisdom.
"I like how he ties success to your mindset," said social ecology and criminology, law and society major Sage Cerda. "His talk-to-do ratio makes sense. You can't just talk, you need to take action for your own success. And, there is opportunity inside adversity."
Matthew co-teaches the class with Mark LeVine, professor of history. The course, offered for the first time this quarter, was made possible through UC Irvine's Alec Glasser Center for the Power of Music and Social Change. One-hundred and forty students are enrolled in the class.
"Music has been an integral part of every culture that exists or has ever existed," note Matthew and LeVine in their class syllabus. "It connects us to rhythms and patterns in our brains, our bodies and the environment we live in. It is a dynamic and ever evolving part of the ways in which we entertain ourselves and each other. … The Power of Music and Social Change has been crafted to introduce students to this exciting and important new field of inquiry and education; provide an overview of trends in contemporary music; and suggest ways in which music can be productively integrated into higher education, careers and personal lives."
The students, Matthew said, "are learning about the emerging science of music, which is revealing and explaining remarkable and practical connections between music and individual health and flourishing, music and social change, and music and the natural environment."
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