03 Sep XIPIXI Founder Antonio Macheve Jr. talks Entrepreneurship with MRF Scholars
As spring starts in the beautiful mountainous beach city of Cape Town in South Africa, XIPIXI founder and creative director Antonio Macheve Jr. joins the 2015 cohort of Mandela Rhodes Scholars to share his entrepreneurial journey in building the Xipixi brand.
The Mandela Rhodes Foundation was founded by Nelson Mandela in collaboration with the Rhodes Trust in 2003.
Every year, the foundation selects a group of outstanding young African leaders who demonstrate potential for exceptional leadership capacity for Africa. As part of the program, the young leaders are awarded a scholarship for any post-graduate degree in any internationally recognized South African university and attend 3 workshops throughout their year in residence where they discuss, in different formats and with various personalities, the 4 principles of the Mandela Rhodes Foundation: Leadership, academic excellence, reconciliation and entrepreneurship.
Macheve Jr., a 2013 Mandela Rhodes Scholar himself, is definitely no stranger to the foundation and was invited to join South African entrepreneur and philanthropist, Isaac Shongwe, as a panellist to share their journeys as entrepreneurs as well as the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship. The common message left by both panelists is that the people who will have a strong impact in the growth of the African continent in the mid- to long-term are the people starting businesses, creating jobs and opportunities with a sense of responsibility towards the improvement of African societies. Macheve Jr. shared various insights and themes ranging from his aviation-inspired decision-making methods, to overcoming rejection and failure, the importance of team-building and partnerships in business as well as his ambition and commitment to building a top international menswear brand from Africa to the world.
