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 2070: The Entrepreneur’s Commitment

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field.”

A true entrepreneur, will once s/he lands on an idea that they believe will make a difference, or solve a real problem, will give everything they have to pursue and realize their dream.  And when I say, “everything”, I mean all that they have.  I have seen a handful of maxed out credit cards as funding. I’ve seen no homes and sleeping under the desk.  I’ve seen personal borrowing that means no house or private schooling.  I’ve seen just about it all.  And even then on;y a few ever have it all come back to them in the way they so desired.  But, still it is what they do, not because they want to, but because they have to.  How wonderful it would be to have our companies more filled with these type of people versus those who come to work because just because.

Jesus’ parable is remarkable.  If it doesn’t squarely challenge us to get our priorities right, then I don’t know what does. The discover of the fortune gives it all up to buy the field.  What are we willing to give up to receive the treasures of God’s Kingdom?  Thank you Jesus for making us have to answer the question!

Reference: Matthew 13:44 (New Living Translation)