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.

2149: Unexpected Visitors

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“Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings,favored woman! The Lord is with you!”Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.”

There was a time when an unexpected person at the door was welcomed.  It might be a neighbor stopping by to say hi!  At work it could be a customer or vendor who was in the area and just wanted to stop and catch up.  We made time and room for them as their visit felt like someone was going out of their way to reach to us.  Somewhere along the way, that all changed.  Imagine now the thoughts that go through our mind when the doorbell rings or we are told that someone is downstairs to see us without an appointment.  Where does our mind go?  Not to where they once did and I doubt that we are going back, that is unless we decide consciously to do so.  When someone drops by our office or cubicle today just to talk or catch up, how will we respond?  We can make a little room and time for them, or we can shut them out and keep on with what we have in front of us.  We have the choice.

Yesterday, I wrote of making room and space for Christ in the Advent Season.  That we must do, but at the same time we can do the same by making room and time for others during this Christmas time.  Someone is hurting, lonely, down on their luck, struggling and just might need someone to talk to, or to just sit and share a coffee.  Let’s try to look at the unexpected visitors over the next month as ones who are sent to us for a purpose.

Reference: Luke 1:28-30 (New Living Translation)