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 2045: Thorny Ground

“The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the Good News but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares of this life, and the lure of wealth, so no crop is produced.”

It’s very easy to get caught up in thorny issues.  In fact, it’s nearly impossible to work without some type of turbulence.  So, it’s not always the what, as much as it is the how that we deal with the situation.  And it is in these moments that patience, cool, calm and collected are the people who stand above the rest.

We are surrounded by the thorny ground that Jesus describes.  Our workplaces are filled with them.  Work becomes overly important.  The money we make, or don’t make, becomes too much of a driver of our intentions and actions.  And if we don’t keep these thorns in their place, then they will choke out what is truly important.  We can’t eliminate the thorns, we can only choose to keep them trimmed back and subordinated to where they belong.

Reference: Matthew 13:23 (New Living Translation)