Zane and Nolan, having finished their big trip to Cannes, didn't stay in Europe. The very next day, they took the first flight back to the United States. After all, Zane had a lot of business to take care of.
...
At Wald Pictures...
"Sir, congratulations on your award!" Kevin Fitch and the other bosses said, all clapping as Zane walked in.
Zane just smiled and waved his hand, acting all humble. "Hey, it's just a small award for a short film. When I win the real Best Director Oscar, or the big prize at Cannes, then you can congratulate me."
"Sir, you're absolutely right," one of them said, smiling.
There was no doubt about it; Zane was feeling very proud of himself!
The other bosses all congratulated him, too. They even had a pile of American newspapers from that morning, all talking about Zane and Nolan's big wins.
"Alright, everyone," Zane said, his mindset switching from "happy winner" back to "boss." His voice became serious. "I'm here today to announce two things."
Seeing Zane get so serious, all the bosses, like Kevin Fitch, were startled.
Uh oh, Kevin thought, his eyes narrowing. This feels... bad. He knew something big was coming.
"The first thing!" Zane said. "Bill McNichol, the former CEO of 20th Century Fox, has accepted my invitation. He will be joining our company as the new President of Wald Pictures."
Before Zane could even finish, the room burst into noisy whispers.
"Mr. Fitch?" one of the bosses muttered, worried.
For a moment, everyone in the room couldn't help but glance over at Kevin Fitch, the Vice President.
They all knew that Kevin, as the Vice President, was really the person who had been running the whole company. He was the number one leader.
Now, this new guy, Bill, was being dropped in above him. What did this mean for Kevin?
"Quiet, gentlemen!" Zane said, his voice firm. "I hope that Vice President Fitch, and all of you, will support Mr. McNichol's work and help Wald Pictures grow."
The other bosses were fine, but Kevin Fitch's face looked... a little unhappy.
"The second thing!" Zane announced. "'Harry Potter' and 'Spider-Man' are now officially in the works!"
"The company's writing and production teams must give me a full script and a plan to shoot them within 3 months. We will start casting and filming early next year. Okay, that's it. Meeting is over!"
After he finished, Zane didn't wait to see how everyone reacted. Surrounded by his assistant, Alexander, and his bodyguards, he got in his car and left.
...
In the car...
Alexander, sitting in the passenger seat, wanted to ask a question but was a little nervous.
"Alexander," Zane said with a friendly, knowing laugh, "you want to ask me why I didn't tell Kevin and the others about this before the meeting, right?"
"Yes, sir," Alexander nodded. "Mr. Fitch has been doing a really good job. Don't you plan to talk to him about this?"
Zane's face got a playful look. "Alexander, I am the boss of the company. They are just managers who work for me."
"When you make a mistake, you get punished. When you do a good job, you get rewarded."
"In the workplace," Zane said, "they are not children. I don't need to hold their hand and 'coax' them. If they can't understand this, then they should just leave as soon as possible."
Zane was becoming more and more like a real boss.
A long time ago, Zane would get super excited to meet all these "future stars" and would try to be their best friend. But now, he knew the truth.
The workplace is a battlefield!
It's not that 'just because you're amazing, I have to be nice to you,' he thought. Because there are always more people who are just as amazing.
...
Not long after, Zane and his team drove to Silicon Valley.
Their destination—The Wald Building!
"Sir, welcome!" The bosses of his animation studio, Stephen Solenberg and David Messer, both came out to greet him personally.
As they walked to the conference room, Stephen explained what the company had been up to.
"Sir, the second season of 'SpongeBob SquarePants' is all finished and sent to the UPN television network. It should be on TV at the end of May."
"Also," he added, "the second team, led by David, has finished 100 episodes of 'Peppa Pig.' They're just adding the voices and music now."
Zane was very happy. "What about Finding Nemo?"
Zane really cared about his animation studio. It was a very important part of his big media empire. SpongeBob, Peppa Pig, and Finding Nemo were all going to make him a lot of money and make his studio world-famous.
"Sir, Finding Nemo is moving along smoothly," Stephen said. "We think it will be finished in the first half of 1999."
Zane nodded, very satisfied.
He walked into the studio. It wasn't a tiny, "grassroots" team anymore. With hits like SpongeBob, it was already a big name in America. The studio now had 325 employees!
And, impressively, 50 of them were talented artists he had "poached" (or hired away) from Steve Jobs's company, Pixar.
For this, Zane had gotten several angry phone calls from Jobs and John Lasseter, who both cursed at him for not "playing fair."
Zane just laughed. The workplace is a battlefield!
He knew that the big studios, like Paramount and Disney, were always trying to steal his best people, too!
That's why Zane had already decided to give his team stock options and big bonuses. If his key people left, he couldn't run everything by himself!
...
After visiting the animation studio, Zane took the elevator up to the LinkedIn company, which was in the same building.
For the next few days, Zane was very busy dealing with all his work.
He didn't stop working until he got an important call from Henry, the man in charge of his money-making company, Gale Capital.
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