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 2050: Light Test

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“For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

Everyone wants the corner office.  Who wouldn’t want windows on two sides?  That’s why the CEO usually gets the corner office and the other three on a floor are also senior executives, or the most senior people on the floor.  But, what we don’t talk much about is that getting those corner offices with all that light, causes more focus and light to be shined on the performance and results of the person sitting in that office. The adage is real, “Be careful what you ask for”.  There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, if you know what you are aspiring for and have readied yourself that once you find that corner office, you can conduct yourself in the way that all of the test of light being shined on you illuminates character, integrity and authenticity.

If you have been reading purposed worKING for any length of time, you know that I like to read the Bible in a way that we can see many sides of an account, or a scripture.  And let’s be clear, I am far from a Bible scholar. I’m just a Bible reader and student.  Matthew 11:30 is one of my favorite verses and I have reached to it many times when I feel spiritually burnt out or burdened down.  But, I also like to read the verse with a different meaning for me.  Jesus says that His yoke is easy and that the burden He gives us is light.  He clearly meant light as in little weight.  But what if the burden is His light, as in the light that Christ puts in us to shine for Him?  I accept that meaning as a burden and when I think of it that way, I am encouraged and humbled that Christ would extend His burden to me.  May today we all accept both the lightness and the light of Him.

Reference:  Matthew 11:30 (New Living Translation)