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 2226: Programmatic Inflation

“A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls.”

We all start with a budget that is developed from what needs to be accomplished. It might be a project or a program, or a structure. What becomes important in attaining and staying within the budget is that the scope doesn’t creep or expand. “Programmatic Inflation” happens all the time and for many reasons, but one that we can control is the pre-planning and then the discipline to not allow there to be “more” added on if it causes the budget to expand. It’s so easily said, I know. But, so hard to do.  However, so, so important to accomplish.

God has given us a free-will which, within we establish our own “program” of life. Also, in our own ways we budget and allocate our time and resources against our life and work program. When we stay within that budget, we typically will find ourselves aligned and “on track”. In those times, it may be when we feel closest to God. But, we are smart and experienced enough to know that our own flawed nature will cause us to “go over budget” and inflate our life program in ways we know we shouldn’t, but we do. Maybe in our work stuff we can do this alone, but in our lives, it is only when we place our trust and confidence in God that we can establish and maintain a “budget” and self-control that is sustainable and dependable.

Reference:  Proverbs 25:28 (New Living Translation)