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 2286: Heavy Metal

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 “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

I read a Mastercard advertisement where they are touting their three new levels of “Luxury Cards”, which are made of stainless steel/carbon and even 24K-Gold plated carbon. My buddy Doug has one and it weighs a lot more than a plastic credit card and the first time you hold one, it does feel like “luxury” and “quality”.  But, it is heavy and if we hold a number of credit cards and they all become metal, then what sense does it make to be weighed down?  And how do these metal cards fit into the world of Apple Pay, PayPal and Venmo? I don’t think they do.  Metal credit cards may be the last ditch marketing efforts for an industry segment that doesn’t know what to do with digital disruption. What happens next with credit cards will be a cautionary tale.

Because we got up this morning and got far enough along that we are reading this post, it means we know life is full of heavy burdens and if asked, none of would request more of the heavy stuff.  But, that is what we get with life. There will be some issue today at work that will add to the heaviness and then we get the chance to decide what we will do with the new burden.  Jesus tells us what to do and to trust Him to take the burdens from us so that we can rest. Sometimes it is us that bring on the greater heaviness to carry. Like the kind of credit cards we carry. We take on those things that don’t add value to our lives, but yet we get caught up in what they might represent.  Wondering what we should be carrying with us?  Jesus. He has always been the transforming answer yo provide us a life that is the opposite of heavy and burdened.

Reference: Matthew 11:28 (New Living Translation)