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 2102: Why Is The Future Scarier Than The Present?

purposed worKING No Comments

“…rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.”

All around us the messages about the horrors and fears of the future are blasting into our conscious and subconscious minds.  Politicians paint a fear-filled world that will be worse than today, that is unless they are the ones who keep us from that dark place.  Tesla has two self-driving fatal car accidents in the past multiple numbers years, while over 100 people die daily from human navigated automobile accidents, and the media and lawmakers are up in arms about the future possibilities.  AI/Machine Learning is predicted to be the end of human employment.  Yes, all around us the future wants to look scarier than the present, but it doesn’t have to be.  If we really thought that we should fear the future then why would we spend another moment trying to do anything but keep everything just as it is?  Well, because as we know in business, that any time we are standing still and not growing we are on the path to dying.  Do we have a strategy and process to embrace and tackle the future for our businesses?  If we don’t, then we might want to check on what fears are holding us back?

When Jesus talked to His Disciples about the future, it wasn’t all about the glories of heaven.  He spent a lot of time telling them how bad it would get before it got better.  After all, they were preparing in their own minds to be seated at the table of a King and they would reap all that comes with those high places.  They didn’t know or understand that Jesus was a different kind of King, the first and only like Him that the world would ever see.  Jesus told us that it would be a rough road for Him and His Disciples but that on the other side yes, it will be glorious.  What I take from this is that Jesus didn’t tell any of us to be afraid of the future.  He lived out for us that no matter how today or tomorrow unfolds that there is a short-term future here on earth that we can make the most of each and every day and then there is that ultimate future that will be beyond comparison of anything we have ever experienced.  So, certainly there is no reason for anyone who follows Jesus to be anything but excited about the future.

Reference: Luke 10:20 (New Living Translation)