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 2288: Wake Or Rise

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“I rise early, before the sun is up; I cry out for help and put my hope in your words.”

Something we each do, every day, is that we come out of our night’s sleep and we make a decision. That decision is whether we will “wake” or will we “rise”?  Yes, there is a difference.  When we “wake”, we know that we must start the day and we do so with our daily routine, upcoming meetings, conversations, decisions, challenges on our mind.  There is nothing wrong with “waking” and given that many don’t want to do so, or may just lay in bed for longer than they should, “waking” is a blessing.  But, if we want to move beyond, then we don’t just “wake”, instead, we “rise”.   You see, to “rise” is to emotionally bounce out of bed, full of excitement, optimism and energy to attack the day. “Rising” is what happens when we have something in the day that excites and motivates us to emotionally have an extra level of energy.  Why is any of this important?  It’s because our companies and organizations are filled with people who collectively, “wake” or “rise” each day and then begin to work.  If our organizations are filled with all “wakers” then what is the organizational energy that we have each day?  So, what if we could begin to challenge ourselves to have an organization filled with “risers”?  Possibly, much, much different!

Each day we also have the choice to either “wake” or “rise” in our relationship with Christ. When we only “wake”, do we not miss the opportunity to be a greater example for the One who rose for our eternity?  If the difference between “waking” and “rising” is ours to make, then each day, we can choose to “rise” so that we can approach the day with all that He wants us to have in our lives. We are already up today, but it’s not too late to still “rise”!

Reference: Psalm 119:147 (New Living Translation)