It’s a nice line, isn’t it? Fictional, yes, but that’s besides the point. I like the idea that in life you don’t have to make these grand black-or-white choices, that you can be one thing and another thing all at the same time. Pretty simple when you say it like that.
But the line really sticks with me not because we (Interval) or I (Aidan) are gifted, or necessarily even decent, but because I think a lot about how Interval can be two things – even when it feels like those things are in conflict
It's not binary. You can be decent and gifted at the same time.
Aidan Thompson
There’s a line in the film Steve Jobs where Seth Rogen (Woz) says to Michael Fassbender (Jobs):
Interval is, first and foremost, a business. It has to be. Wages, rent, bills, and the small matter of trying to make something out of what’s left over… those things aren’t optional. In order to do good things, we need to make money. In order to do creative things, we need to not be stressed. And in order to not be stressed, we need to, yep, make money.
But knowing that doesn’t mean the other good stuff gets sidelined. You can try to do good and still be a business. You can build a community while making money. It’s not that radical an idea – it’s existed for centuries in pubs. Pillars of communities, but businesses.
When we launched, I half-jokingly described Interval as a pub for runners, which The Edinburgh Minute picked up on. Instead of tap lines, we had gels. It was a throwaway line at the time, but there’s more truth in it than I realised.