Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 497

The moment Mira stepped into the office, she called for an all-hands meeting. She fully expected Owen to take a seat beside her at the head of the conference table and offer his input. To her surprise, both he and Dominic slipped quietly into the back row alongside the junior staff, content to play the role of silent observers.

Mira was too busy outlining directives to pay them any mind.

A few of the newer hires couldn't help but stare at their teenage boss, whispering to the veterans next to them. “Is she seriously the owner?” It seemed entirely impossible.

“Yeah, she's the boss. She's only eighteen and hasn't even started college yet. Crazy, right?”

Another employee glanced toward the back of the room and whispered, “Why is Mr. Lance sitting all the way back there today?”

“The big boss is here, so he's letting her run the show.”

The new hire looked skeptical. “Look at the guy sitting next to him. Doesn't he look exactly like Dominic West?”

“Probably just a lookalike. Why would someone like Dominic West be hanging around our office?”

Mira caught the tail end of the exchange but had zero interest in correcting them or gossiping about Dominic's identity. She had actual work to do.

“That's why time is critical, and the workload is heavy. I need a team of absolute wolves. Wolves hunt to feast, and I need hunters,” Mira stated, her tone uncompromising. “I have no problem paying top-tier salaries and massive bonuses. I will gladly pay you several times what any other studio is offering. For every milestone we crush, the company will hand out heavy rewards. But I expect you to work twice as hard to earn it.”

Compensation was directly tied to performance metrics. The base pay here was already miles ahead of the industry standard. However, Mira wasn't throwing money away blindly; her developers had to prove they were worth the price tag. The same applied to her mobile OS division. If an engineer was a genius, she wouldn't blink at paying them tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. But they only saw that money if they hit their targets.

Because of this, the team was fiercely motivated. They hustled harder than anyone else in the industry, and working late into the night naturally became the standard culture.

No one dared call Mira a greedy capitalist exploiting her workers. The only way any emerging powerhouse ever closed a decades-long gap with established giants was by outworking them at every turn.