--- title: Tom LeNoble, Who Joined Facebook at 50, on How to Reinvent Yourself description: Tom LeNoble joined Facebook at 50 and now advises leaders on changes of direction. He explains how he has started over, and how he coaches others to. author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief) date: 2026-10-11T10:59:58.650Z updated: 2026-10-11T11:01:16.711Z canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/how-to-reinvent-yourself image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/tom-lenoble-hero-v2.webp categories: Memoir & Biography, Business & Leadership content_type: Profile region: San Francisco, California, United States publication: Rich Books about: - type: Person name: Tom LeNoble description: "Tom LeNoble is CEO of Opening Pathways Collective and a confidential advisor to founders, executives, nonprofit leaders, business owners and professionals navigating meaningful leadership moments. He is an international speaker, coach and philanthropist. His career spans Fortune 500 companies including MCI (now Verizon), Walmart.com, Palm (later HP) and Facebook (now Meta), as well as several high-growth startups. He is also CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence and a leadership coach with the Miller Center at Santa Clara University, mentoring leaders and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is the bestselling author of the award-winning memoir My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels and of Morning Ground, an inspirational daily guide, and the creator and host of the Opening Pathways podcast, where he shares stories and insights on leadership, resilience and reinvention. Having survived multiple life-threatening diagnoses, he lives by his conviction: \"I'm Still Here!\"" url: https://www.tomlenoble.com jobTitle: CEO, Opening Pathways Collective worksFor: Opening Pathways Collective sameAs: - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomlenoble - https://www.instagram.com/lenoble.tom/ - https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B0FVHDHJXF --- Tom LeNoble joined Facebook as its 57th employee at the age of 50, one of many times he has started his working life again. His memoir, My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels: In Control, Being Controlled, Out of Control!, has won seven book awards, including a 2026 NYC Big Book Award. ### Book: My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels *In Control, Being Controlled, Out of Control!* By Tom LeNoble Tom LeNoble's memoir follows a life rebuilt many times, from a childhood home in Florida with no hot water, through the AIDS years and a corporate career at MCI, Walmart.com, Palm and Facebook, to his work as a coach and confidential advisor to leaders. Along the way he lived with two life-threatening illnesses and was told three times that he had six months to live. The book won the LGBTQ Nonfiction category at the 2026 NYC Big Book Award and was named a Distinguished Favorite at the Independent Press Award. [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FY72L479) The book follows him from a childhood home in Florida he calls the Shack, which had no hot water or refrigerator, through the AIDS years and a corporate career in Silicon Valley, to his work today as a confidential advisor to founders, executives and nonprofit leaders. "I didn't write this book to tell a perfect story. My life certainly hasn't been one," he says. "I wrote it to tell the truth about a life shaped by business, illness, love, loss, risk, reinvention, resilience, and more than a few moments when the path ahead wasn't clear." ## Reinventing Yourself at 50 "I was 50 when I joined Facebook as employee number 57, at an age when conventional wisdom might have suggested I should be settling into what I already knew rather than stepping into something completely new," LeNoble says. "It was a huge risk." In his corporate career he also led customer service at MCI and at Walmart.com, ran global service operations at Palm, served as Chief Support Officer at a company whose technology became the backbone of Geek Squad's remote support, and was VP of HR and Customer Care at a dating site later bought by Match.com, where he managed the merger. Asked how many times he has rebuilt his working life from the ground up, he says he has lost count. "I have moved between large corporations and startups, survived companies failing, helped build companies that succeeded, stepped into entirely new industries, became a coach and advisor, wrote a bestselling memoir, became a professional speaker, and founded Opening Pathways Collective," he says. "Reinvention has never been a single chapter in my life. It has been one of the recurring themes." ## Coaching Leaders Through a Change of Direction LeNoble runs his advisory work through Opening Pathways Collective, where he is CEO. He is also CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence, a coach training organization, and a leadership coach with the Miller Center at Santa Clara University, and he says he has coached hundreds of professionals in the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. When a leader comes to him wanting to change direction, he starts with what lies behind the wish. "The first thing I do is slow down the decision without slowing down the person," he says. "Are they moving toward something they genuinely want, or simply trying to escape something that has become uncomfortable? Those are very different motivations." He and the client then look at what they are protecting, what they are willing to risk and what they might regret if they do nothing. He helps them separate the facts from their fears, and other people's expectations from their own wishes. He says the most useful work usually happens a few levels below the question a client brings, and clients often arrive with one question and leave with a different answer. "The goal is not for me to tell them which direction to take," he says. "It is to help them become clear enough and courageous enough to make the decision that is truly theirs and then take responsibility for what comes next." ## Taking Risks When You Reinvent Yourself Much of the usual advice on reinventing yourself is to start small and stay safe. LeNoble says his life has taught him that "sometimes starting small is wise but keeping it safe can become another way of staying stuck." He has walked away from security, taken on businesses he had to learn, started companies and become an author and speaker, often with no guarantee that he would succeed, and he says some of the biggest openings in his life came because he took the risk before he knew where it would lead. "That does not mean being reckless. I believe in understanding risk, not eliminating it. There is a difference," he says. "Reinvention often requires trusting yourself enough to move before certainty arrives. If I had waited until every decision felt safe, much of the life I describe in My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels would never have happened." He says one lesson from his own life now runs through much of his work with leaders at defining moments. "For much of my life, being fully who I am wasn't always the easiest path. Over time, I learned that hiding pieces of ourselves doesn't make the journey safer. It just makes the journey smaller." ## Starting Over in Life After a Serious Illness "The hardest reinventions were the ones I did not choose," LeNoble says. He has lived with HIV/AIDS for 37 years and, for more than 14 years, with metastatic prostate cancer in the bone, and has been told on three separate occasions that he had six months to live. Each time, he faced something much larger than a career change. "In the month before, an ordinary day could be filled with work, meetings, plans, deadlines and all the things we convince ourselves are urgent. Then suddenly my days became doctors, hospitals, tests, treatments, and questions about whether there would even be another month." He says he eventually had to work out how to live again, not only how to survive, and that it changed the way he approached work, risk and time. "Once you have had the future taken away from you and then unexpectedly handed back, starting over has a very different meaning," he says. "You become much less interested in waiting for the perfect moment, the past, or even the future." ## Awards and the Opening Pathways Podcast The memoir has won seven book awards, among them the LGBTQ Nonfiction category at the [2026 NYC Big Book Award](https://richbooksmagazine.com/article/joseph-howse-circus-and-the-atom-nyc-big-book-award) and a Distinguished Favorite honor from the Independent Press Award in January. This year's NYC Big Book Award drew entries from the United States and more than a dozen other countries, from first-time independent authors to Penguin Random House, Wiley and NYU Press, and winners will receive their awards on stage at a dinner on April 10, 2027, during BookCAMP. LeNoble likes to say he retired to be inspired. He hosts the [Opening Pathways podcast](https://www.tomlenoble.com/podcast) on leadership, resilience and reinvention, which he says is now in its fourth season with more than 170 episodes. His second book, Morning Ground, is an inspirational daily guide, and both of his books have won awards. He has contributed to two further books and has two more of his own due in the next six months. "Resilience isn't about avoiding what knocks us down," he says. "It is discovering who we become because we chose to get back up." **About Tom LeNoble** CEO, Opening Pathways Collective, Opening Pathways Collective Tom LeNoble is CEO of Opening Pathways Collective and a confidential advisor to founders, executives, nonprofit leaders, business owners and professionals navigating meaningful leadership moments. He is an international speaker, coach and philanthropist. His career spans Fortune 500 companies including MCI (now Verizon), Walmart.com, Palm (later HP) and Facebook (now Meta), as well as several high-growth startups. He is also CEO of the Academy for Coaching Excellence and a leadership coach with the Miller Center at Santa Clara University, mentoring leaders and entrepreneurs worldwide. He is the bestselling author of the award-winning memoir My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels and of Morning Ground, an inspirational daily guide, and the creator and host of the Opening Pathways podcast, where he shares stories and insights on leadership, resilience and reinvention. Having survived multiple life-threatening diagnoses, he lives by his conviction: "I'm Still Here!" [Website](https://www.tomlenoble.com) **About Opening Pathways Collective** Opening Pathways Collective is Tom LeNoble's advisory, speaking and media company. Through it he works as a confidential advisor to founders, executives, nonprofit leaders, business owners and professionals at defining leadership moments, and hosts the Opening Pathways podcast on leadership, resilience and reinvention. [Website](https://openingpathwayscollective.com) ## FAQ **Q: How do I start reinventing myself?** LeNoble begins with the reason for the change. He slows the decision down and asks whether the person is moving toward something they want or getting away from something that has become uncomfortable. He then looks with them at what they are protecting, what they would risk and what they might regret if they did nothing, and helps them separate facts from fear. **Q: Is 40 too old to reinvent yourself?** LeNoble's own career suggests not. He joined Facebook as its 57th employee at 50, and later moved into coaching, writing, podcasting and speaking. He says he has rebuilt his working life from the ground up more times than he can count. **Q: What is My Life in Business Suits, Hospital Gowns, and High Heels about?** It is Tom LeNoble's memoir of a life spent between corporate leadership, illness and reinvention, from a Florida childhood in a home without hot water to Facebook, with the AIDS years in between. It has won seven book awards, including the LGBTQ Nonfiction category at the 2026 NYC Big Book Award and a Distinguished Favorite honor from the Independent Press Award.