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 2009: The Front Porch

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“But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.”

Yesterday I wrote of the light that gets left on for us to safely welcome and guide us to a place we have not been before or that feels unknown. That light many times is on the front porch, or in the front entry of a home or a building. The “Front Porch” was a way of life at one time in the U.S.. The front porch was where we gathered as family and friends to watch the world go by. Even in cities, because they didn’t have them, they used the stoop of the steps as the same gathering place. What was amazing about the front porch was that you never knew who might stop and say hi, or even who might be new to us that were walking by for the first time. The front porch was about being okay with welcoming the unknown. And then, the front porch was replaced by the back patio. The back patio is a place of invitation. We control who and when someone comes there. It is not at all about the unknown, it all about the known. In many ways industry went the same way. Small neighborhood, locally owned businesses were replaced by chains and big box retail. Main streets became abandoned for shopping malls and later the internet. Industries that once required face-to-face people contact were replaced by transparency and technology. And so, we moved from the front porches to the back patios. Have our customer support groups done the same? Are we more concerned about the technology that tracks our customer issues than the people who can resolve those issues? It’s worth considering if we are spending time on the front porch or on the back patio?

Jesus made it clear that our faith is built on and for the front porch and a front porch way of living. Even in His own life on earth, it became impossible for those who saw Him to stop themselves from telling others and spreading the word about Him.  It’s when we pull back and hang out only on the back patio of life that we miss the opportunity to shine His light out and beyond the known. Figuratively, if we don’t come out of our workspace and engage with others who we might not normally interact, then it is not that different from keeping our faith and life example on the back patio instead of the front porch.

Reference: Matthew 9:31 (New Living Translation)