Ford

It sounds like a trick question.

Was Henry Ford fired from the company which bore his name? The answer is a surprising "yes". Of course there's a little more to it that that. Notice it isn't the "Ford Motor Company" which fired him, but the "Henry Ford" company. That's a very important distinction, because the company which bore his exact name was one set up very early in his career, and was named from his fame as a racer and car inventor, i.e. the "Henry Ford" motor company.

After working for this early company, he was indeed fired because he was said to be spending all his time working on a race car, and not a passenger car.

Things moved on swiftly, however, and he then founded "The Ford Motor Co." in 1903. The rest, as we all know, is history.

Revenge

After some considerable sucess with the Ford Motor Co, in 1922 Henry Ford bought the Lincoln Motor Company which had gone bankrupt, and used the name to launch a line of luxury cars. The irony was, at the time it was owned by one of the very men who sacked young Henry years earlier - Henry Leland.