I had the privilege of speaking with Zimbabwean race car driver, Axcil Jefferies. I thought this conversation would be useful to both parents and young people to shed light on what some would consider a less conventional career path. Through forging his path, I believe he has shifted the narrative of what Africans can be on a global stage.
In our conversation some of the key takeaways include:
The importance of family support
The process of blazing a new trail
Learning to enjoy each moment
The power in believing that anything is possible
To listen & watch the full episode check out the link below
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To reach out or follow Axcil you can find him on:
Below I have left my favourite story from our conversation:
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Axcil: “I remember when we were trying to put everything together; we set up a GoFundMe page to try to keep the dream alive. There was quite a lot of media attention and press around it and we managed to get the ball rolling. I had just come back from one of my races abroad. So I went for an interview and on my way home, I stopped at a traffic light and there was a street kid that walked to my car. And naturally, I was expecting him to ask for some money, food, or anything. I was just getting prepared to pull up my wallet and as I pulled out my wallet; I saw his hand at the window. And he's holding money, and he's giving me money and I'm like, What? What's going on here?
And he says, ‘Axcil, we're so proud of you and we know the struggle you’re going through. This is all I can do to support it, here’s a dollar I want to put towards your program. We're so proud of what you're doing for our country.’
I remember I was in the car with my mom and she just started crying. You know, it was special. I had never ever thought that up until that point; I had an impact on people or felt that people were following my journey. I knew we had fans and everything, but I didn't know people were following me and wanted success for me that much. So of course, it was touching. And you realize at that point that, okay, there's a bigger role that I have to play. It's a lot more than just my sport. You end up becoming an ambassador, and you have to look a lot further than just yourself.”
Be Inspired!