After the CEO called me into his glass office, slid a termination letter across the desk, and said, 'Don't be mad, we'll take it from here,' I just nodded, said thank you, and walked out with nothing but a USB drive and my dignity—and fourteen days later, I was shaking hands with his biggest rival as we closed a $1.1 billion patent deal. They let me go in a glass conference room overlooking San Francisco Bay—flags fluttering on the pier, ferries drawing white lines on the water. "Effective immed