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 2080: Watch and Do

purposed worKING No Comments

“Keep watch and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation. For the spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”

I know most of my readers won’t believe this but on April 3rd, the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio was sold out to 10,000 people for four days and during that time the event generated 71 million online spectator views.  Was it a sports event?  A concert?  A revival? A business conference?  No, none of the above. It was to watch people compete playing the videogame, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.  Who would have thought?  Well, back when I was working in videogames, we did, but the market wasn’t ready.  But, now a decade later, the kids in my Sunday school class don’t fight to see who can get the controllers anymore.  Instead, they hand the controllers over to the best players and then they all stand around and watch them play.  I don’t know what changed, other than this; Those who do, want to get better and appreciate those who do something better than them.  Like why golfers watch golf on TV.  And so maybe this is where we have come to with kids and videogames. There is an applicable lesson in here somewhere for companies that want their consumers or customers to engage with them on a higher level, or for those who seek to help others learn.  It might be they have wanted to watch the whole time, we just didn’t have the right people showcased for them to see.

Was there ever anyone more so than Jesus, in the history of the world, that we wish we could have been there to watch? Imagine to have been on the side of the mountain as part of the 5000 plus fed and taught?  We have the blessing of having Him alive with us today to continue to learn from and then watch as He works within our lives and the lives of others.  We also are taught how to “do” on His behalf. He told us to keep watch and to pray! It is our choice today.  Are we watching Him? Are we praying?

Reference: Mark 14:38 (New Living Translation)