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 2214: Get Into The Groove…

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“So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.”

Being in the groove is a good thing.  When we are in the groove we can feel like we are moving downhill at the speed of an Olympic Bobsled team as they race their way through turns and accelerations.  When we are in the groove, it all seems exciting and if not easy then things can feel conquerable and achievable.  But, why is it that what one day is a groove, the next can feel like a rut?  In a rut everything slows to a stop and any movement forward or out of the rut feels impossible.  No one desires to be caught in a rut and when we are in one, we want out, now! The path or course of a groove and a rut can be the same and many times it is our attitude and approach that make the difference.  I know many people, myself included, who have found themselves grooving along doing something that someone else might consider a rut of activities. And vice versa, there are those that others see doing something amazing, that the person who is doing it can’t see what a great groove they have going on and act out as if they are stuck in their own rut.  So, how do we manage and control the difference?  We must remind everyone of the good they have, the challenges that comes with the work, and the learning and growth that can be achieved by doing anything well!

Paul challenges the church at Corinth to not allow themselves to get into a rut.  He provides context to the work they are doing by providing them an eternal reason to focus on the daily work at hand.  We can all take a lesson from Paul here (I’ll write more about this tomorrow) and acknowledge that the work we are given to do is God’s gift and whether we see it or not, has implications for God’s Kingdom.  If you feel like life has become a rut, then ask yourself, “Why would God put me here to waste mine and His time?”  He wouldn’t.  So, if we are praying and doing our best to be in God’s Will and trusting Him for the next steps forward, then what may feel like our rut, is actually God’s groove for us.  From there, it all becomes a matter of perspective and how we choose to feel and act about what we have been given.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 15:58 (New Living Translation)