About
(Quin·Dek·Um) Red
In 2011, I started my 5th year of college at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. I had just switched my major to finance. I wanted to be a business man and make alllll the money! After taking a few classes, I realized I wasn’t cut out for the types of jobs that my future degree would allow me to get. All of the job descriptions sounded very boring and robotic. I wanted to find a job where I could make good money, connect with people, and most importantly, have fun! It turned out that those types of jobs didn’t exist. So I picked up a notebook and started writing down business ideas. I was going to create my own damn job ;).
The first idea I wrote down was a clothing brand that motivated people who were in a similar situation as me. I wrote down numerous other ideas, but I kept coming back to the clothing brand idea. So I put most of my eggs in one basket and started creating Quindecim Red. The neighborhood I grew up in inspired me a lot when creating this brand because most of us in the neighborhood were either going to school, working a 9-5 we didn’t like, or doing something that got us in trouble. Deep down, we didn’t want to do any of those things. Most of us had great ideas, but never put the correct time and effort into them. I believed it was because we truly didn’t believe in ourselves. That self doubt created an unwanted daily cycle that kept us in the same dreadful situation. With Quindecim Red, I wanted to break that cycle and lead by example.
Quindecim Red is about motivating people to break their everyday cycle and make positive lifestyle changes. To break the cycle, we have to have a fearless imagination and apply it to something that we are passionate about. The name Quindecim means 15 in Latin. 15 is significant because it is one of the two streets that are used to refer to my neighborhood. The other street is Quinn Road. Pretty cool huh? My neighborhood is where I first saw the cycle, so it made sense to incorporate it into the brand. The color Red signifies passion. I believe to truly bring an idea to life, you have to be passionate about it. It also is a lot easier to bust your ass and make crazy sacrifices when you’re truly passionate about something.
If you ask any elderly person what their biggest regret in life is, they will most likely say it was not following some type of dream or idea. Don’t let that be you. If you have an idea, tap into that fearless imagination that you had as a kid and bring that idea to life. It took me years to go “all in” with this brand because of self doubt and playing it safe. I did a 7 year bid in college to earn my bachelors degree and a 10 year bid at a job that wasn’t for me, but I never gave up on my ideas. I was laser focused on breaking my cycle, and motivating others to do the same.
Break the cycle. Spark greatness!
-Chris Dorsey
