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 2271: Start With The Hits

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“I have written to you who are God’s children because you know the Father. I have written to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I have written to you who are young in the faith because you are strong. God’s word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one.”

Were you ever taught to play an instrument, but the way you were taught was to learn to play an unknown (to you) piece of music that has no resemblance at all to the music you were listening to on the radio at the time?  If this was your course that ended up with frustration, quitting and an instrument tucked away in its case in the back of the closet, then you are not alone.  But, things are changing.  Technology has given companies like Fender Guitar the ability to allow people to self-teach themselves the hit songs first and then back into the unknown.  Consider how much better it would feel to learn a song that when you played it in front of your friends or family, they might say, “That was cool.” In business, we have to think the same way in how we educate our customers, consumers and employees.  If we are still trying to bring across our communications and information without short-form interactive video that includes music that can be viewed when we search on YouTube and accessible on our phones, then we are sounding like that unknown piece of music that we are required to learn, even though we would never choose to play it again.

Give someone the Bible and tell them to study most of the Old Testament and they will probably never even crack it open.  But, spend time in the Gospels where Jesus speaks directly, then we have a better chance of wanting to dig in.  And, look for a version of the Bible that speaks closer to today’s language.  Plus, the Psalms and Proverbs are like going back to the hits.  Wherever we start, or whatever we need to do to stay in God’s Word, God will meet us with what we need at that time. No one delivers the hits that we need, better than God.

Reference: 1 John 2:14 (New Living Translation)