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 2040: Super Bowl Week – Catching Attention

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“‘Amazing!’ Moses said to himself.  ‘Why isn’t that bush burning up? I must go over to see this.’ When the Lord saw that he had caught Moses’ attention, God called to him from the burning bush.  ‘Moses! Moses!'”

Each year we read the news about the Super Bowl and the escalating cost of buying a 30 or 60 second TV advertisement during the game.  Super Bowl ads are risky business not only because of the cost, but also risky because if you run an ad that gets only a “so-so” review, or worse a negative review, then the amount of money spent on the ad begins to look really foolish.  I admire those companies that swing for the fence and try and use the single-largest viewed TV event annually to break-through.  When it works, it sure looks brilliant.  And, as we know, it’s not about placing the advertising in the game, it’s about being creative enough that attention is caught for those precious few seconds.  Who will be the ad this coming Sunday that catches out attention and has everyone talking on Monday?

As I was reading about the account of Moses and the burning bush, it struck me that even God likes to catch our attention and it’s not until then that He may speak to us.  God was burning a bush, but the bush wouldn’t burn out.  Moses was open-minded and curious enough with his mind to realize that that bush over there wasn’t burning through.  It was then that God had caught his attention.  That’s what God does.  He introduces us to things that if we have our minds open enough, we will see that what’s going on can’t be happening, unless of course God is in it.  And then He has caught our attention.  Let’s this week be on the lookout for small and big things that it looks like God is fueling for us, and then more importantly, let’s pay attention to what He is trying to say to us.

Reference:  Exodus 3:3-4 (New Living Translation)