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 3K363: One Of A Kind?

“And the very hairs on your head are all numbered.”

What is it about us that we go above and beyond for “one of a kind”?  It can be for items, experiences and people.  The recruiting function within our companies and organizations are out there trying to bring in that “one of a kind” talent.  But, what if when it comes to people, “one of a kind” is a misnomer, at least in how we look. I was once stopped in San Francisco by a group of people from Russia who were convinced I was a famous Russian comedian.  Literally, they thought I was lying and trying to get away from them as I was telling them, “I am not him.”  I forget his name now but when I looked him up online I could see how they might have been mistaken. It was weird.  I recently saw this picture of people who look alike but aren’t at all related:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess if we consider how many billions of people who have passed through time, we can be unique but very close in our appearance even when we aren’t related.  Might there be more than one of us out there?  Maybe this is why we value “one of a kind” so greatly.

In God’s eyes though we are very unique and only one of us for all time. If He knows every hair and they are numbered then we can know that He has created us intimately and with each of us being a unique signature of His.  While we might sometimes feel (especially in our work) that we are just like hundreds or even thousands who do we what we do, we are assured that He sees us as a one of a kind with a plan for our lives that is only ours.

Reference: Matthew 10:30 (New Living Translation)