Mathew Knowles encouraged his daughter Beyonce Knowles’ to undertake a wide range of hobbies until she found her passion. The 71-year-old record executive is father to pop superstar Bey, 41, as well as actress Solange Knowles with ex-wife Tina Knowles and explained that when his girls were growing up, it was important to let them “gravitate” towards their niche.
He told UsWeekly, “I hope we taught by example. We’d take them to NASA, we would take them to science fairs, we’d take them to a library. We’d take them to sporting events [and] entertainment, and we wanted to see what they gravitated towards. It was always entertainment.”
The “Single Ladies” hitmaker, who is currently selling out stadiums as she embarks on her “Renaissance World Tour”, started her career when she competed on 1990s talent show “Star Search” as part of Girl’s Tyme along with Kelly Rowland before the band became known as Destiny’s Child with Michelle Williams but they ultimately lost out to Skeleton Crew.
Mathew went on to acknowledge that the TV talent show served as the starting point for other future pop superstars including the likes of Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, both of whom lost out to other competitors before going on to enjoy successful careers themselves, and noted how it is “important” to discuss failure because of how it often transforms itself into an “opportunity” for improvement.
He added, “[Host] Ed McMahon shared, he says, ‘I don’t know why all of the people that constantly went on ‘Star Search’ go nowhere professionally.’ It’s the people that lose [who were successful], and that’s why it’s important to talk about failure because it’s an opportunity to grow.”
[via]