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 2292: Unbreakable

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“….Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat.”

What is really unbreakable?  Nothing in our world is unbreakable.  But, we tend to act as this isn’t a fact.  We think, and act like our business model, our reputation, our economy and even our government are all unbreakable and will always be as they are today.  As such, we carry the crystal glass around as if it is made of plastic. But, down deep, we do know better, but we convince ourselves that we can take unbreakable like risks. Look no further than a company that appeared as though it was gaining strength and was on its way to being unbreakable.  Samsung shareholders and employees might feel differently about that today.  It’s a bit in our nature to think that the worst can’t happen, until it does.  It is why we should always balance what is in front of us with both prudence and thoughtfulness and realize that what we have is actually pretty fragile.

There is a verse in the Bible that strikes me each and every time I read it, and we all read it, or hear it each year during the Easter season.  That verse describes how Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the day we now call Palm Sunday.  Jesus rides on the young donkey that has not been ridden before.  So, how was that Jesus was able to sit on the unbroken donkey, never ridden previously and come into the city as peacefully as He did?  We have no indication that the donkey was bucking or showing any discomfort.  Instead, the One who was truly unbreakable, was able to bring peace to others through an unbroken donkey.  Whenever I feel broken or see those broken around me, I am comforted that He won’t ever let us ever be broken beyond what we can handle.  Here is what we can know for sure, our Lord is truly unbreakable and is there with peace for us in our own broken times.

Reference: Luke 19:30 (New King James Version)