She took out her phone and checked the confirmation. It was there, ordinary and reassuring.
"Excuse me. Are you Maya Chen?"
A teenage girl stood a few feet away, holding a canvas tote bag and wearing a school jacket over her sweater. Her dark hair was braided neatly, and she looked both determined and nervous.
"I am," Maya said. "What's your name?"
"Nia. Nia Thompson. My mom showed me your video."
Maya smiled. "A lot of people have seen that video."
"She said you proved one person can change everything."
Maya looked through the window. Kesha was greeting a new group at the welcome desk. Carlos stood near the hallway, answering a question from a delivery driver. Maria crossed the dining room carrying a tray and stopped to help a guest adjust a chair.
"One person can begin something," Maya replied. "But look inside. Those people are the ones who keep the change alive every day."
Nia followed her gaze. "I want to own a restaurant someday. Not a huge one. Maybe a place where families can go after church or after school and nobody worries that they don't belong."
"That sounds like a good place."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
Nia looked down at the tote bag, then met Maya's eyes again. "When you're the boss, how do you make sure you don't turn into the kind of person you were fighting against?"
The question reached somewhere the many business interviews had not.
Maya thought of the confidence with which Richard had described his own judgment, the ease with which he had accepted Derek's account without checking it, and the way Brittany had assumed that being protected by management meant she was right. None of them had considered themselves villains. They had simply become accustomed to decisions nobody was allowed to question.
Maya also thought of the portfolio review that had exposed failure inside her own company. She remembered her first irritated impulse when Zara challenged the relaunch plan. She remembered the comfort of being praised and the danger of believing that praise made her immune to error.
"First," she told Nia, "you make sure people can tell you when you're wrong without being afraid of you."
Nia considered that.
"Even employees?"
"Especially employees. The people who do the work often see problems long before the owner does."
"What if they're wrong?"
"Then you listen carefully, check the facts, and explain the decision. Listening doesn't mean agreeing with everything. It means taking people seriously enough to find out."
Nia shifted the strap of her bag. "My mom says people change when they have money."
"Money gives you choices. Power makes your choices affect other people. Neither makes you wiser automatically. You have to keep learning."
"And what if you forget?"
Maya smiled, but her eyes were serious. "Keep people in your life who will remind you. My mother is excellent at that."