Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 2298: Deep Space

purposed worKING No Comments

“God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through?”

The Cassini deep space probe that launched in 1997 burned up in the atmosphere last month.  NASA sent it to space with hopes that it would collect enough data that the expensive (nearly $4 billion) and controversial exploration would be worth it.  Well, after a 20 year run it did actually accomplish more than expected.  Here is a sampling of it’s achievements: Cassini traveled 4.9 billion miles, it discovered 6 new moons and 3,948 scientific research papers were published from the data and information that the probe provided. That is pretty successful. Imagine you were the project manager who was given the assignment to build a space probe that could stay in space for 20 years, with that not having had happened before.  And, it took you and the team, a decade to plan and build.  That’s 30 years worth of work in front of you before you know if you’ve really succeeded or not.  Have you ever thought that what you are working on today needs to hold up and be evaluated 30 years from now?  Most haven’t, but what if we were held to longer sustainable goals and results?  We might think in different terms for sure.

As humans we naturally have a short-term viewpoint to things.  After all, our lifespan limits our thinking and perspective.  I mentioned to Patti the other day that at the best, after one’s life is over, it will be only 70-75 years that someone who actually saw us live, would have a memory.  After that, it’s pictures, recordings and words.  When I think of the really long-arc that we are provided with eternity and leaving behind a larger Kingdom of God’s than before we got here, it helps me put into perspective what the many things I can do daily to make my mark, while I am here. As I write this, I am reminded that God has and will always be present and the further we probe into space, time and those things that we can’t understand now, the more He will be the same.  That assurance makes the future great for all of us.

Reference: Numbers 23:19 (New Living Translation)