Mathew Knowles has made a name for himself in the business world without the help of investors.
Entrepreneurship In His DNA
The businessman was seated center stage during the Building Wealth Today for Tomorrow Financial Empowerment Summit held at the UIC Forum in Chicago, IL, on Oct. 12, 2024. The event is designed to connect the community to tools, resources, and conversations that encourage the desire to create long-term wealth.
“Bringing Mathew Knowles to our summit reflects our dedication to teaching real, sustainable wealth-building principles,” said Melissa Conyears-Ervin, the city’s treasurer. “His focus on generational wealth and self-funded success aligns with our goal of helping Chicagoans achieve true economic mobility. At the Treasurer’s Office, we believe everyone deserves access to the knowledge and resources to build wealth on their own terms, creating a legacy that will benefit future generations.”
Knowles is well regarded as the manager of Destiny’s Child, one of the most successful girl groups and trios of all time. His business acumen is ingrained in his DNA. In fact, Knowles’ grandfather, Davis Hogue, who inspired his daughter Beyoncé’s newest whiskey brand, SirDavis, was an entrepreneur who owned 300 acres of land and was a moonshine distributor.
He took a hundred acres of that land and he leased it out to the paper mill in this little small town, Marion, AL. I’ll never forget this, and imagine you as a farmer and they’re now paying you to take down the trees, remove the trees, they’re paying you to do that, and then after they get the trees then you go behind them and farm. I thought that was genius,” Knowles told AFROTECH™ in an interview held at the Summit.
Knowles’ parents also carried an entrepreneurial spirit. His mother worked as a maid, earning $15 weekly, and she sold quilts for $150 alongside two friends in her free time as well. His father was paid $30 weekly as a truck driver but was able to earn significantly more in his spare time after striking a deal with the company he worked for.
“He convinced the white company he worked for to let him use that truck. He would go tear down old houses, sell the lumber, sell the copper, aluminum. He would buy old cars, sell every part to the car, and he would make a hundred times more than what he made,” Knowles said. “But he had those assets, he had that truck. My mother had the material, they learned how to source. And I grew up watching and learning and seeing my grandfather and my parents be entrepreneurs.”
To no surprise, Knowles picked up the baton in his day-to-day. Before making his official foray into entrepreneurship, he took on a role at AT&T after graduating from Fisk University with a degree in business administration and economics in 1974. When he moved to Houston, TX, he transitioned to Xerox, a top marketing and sales company. The Record Business reports that he held various roles during his time with the company, working in divisions such as engineering and copying before spending eight and a half years in its medical sector, where he was tasked with selling xeroradiography and imaging equipment. In 1988, Knowles became a MRI/CT sales specialist with Philips Medical Systems and ended his corporate career as a neurosurgical specialist with Johnson & Johnson.
Self Investing
By the 1980s, Knowles and his wife at the time, Tina, who had also worked in sales, opened a self-funded hair salon.
“You have to remember, I’m the No. 1 sales rep in the world. We had some money,” Knowles recalled about the venture that would land the pair their first $1 million in sales.
Access to personal finances would also benefit Destiny’s Child, a group that consistently featured Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland, and after various lineup changes became a trio with the arrival of Michelle Williams in 2000.
With Knowles’ guidance, the group secured 24 partnerships, including a healthy eating initiative with McDonald’s during their biggest tour at the time in 2005, which included stops across 30 countries.
Knowles was also strategic in ensuring funding toward Destiny’s Child remained in-house. Doing so allowed them to remain in control of the narrative, he notes.
“I can’t remember the last time I’ve asked someone for money,” Knowles said. “We prefer to do it ourselves. So, we control the narrative. Even making Beyoncé, Destiny’s Childs’, [and] Solange’s albums, although we had a budget, the record label gives you a budget to make the album. But we would spend our own money for the album. We would spend our own money for the video because we wanted to control the narrative. And once I’m using somebody else’s money, now I have to listen to their concerns. When I’m using my own money, I don’t care what your concerns are because I’m using my own money, we will do it our way, and it worked for us. I’m not saying it works for everyone, but it worked for us.”
Today, Knowles spends most of his time as a speaker on topics such as “Embrace Your Greatness,” “Build The Brand of Beyonce’,” entrepreneurship, the music business, and health and wellness, as Knowles is a five-year cancer survivor. He also is a global brand ambassador for 23andMe.
