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 2005: Thanks Before Joy

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 “Always be joyful.”

Tomorrow we begin a long weekend for Thanksgiving. Regardless of our situations, we have much to be thankful for in our lives. There are times in our business and lives that it is harder to take that perspective, but with a little work, we can find that we definitely have areas that we can be grateful. Tomorrow there will be businesses that will open up in the afternoon in hopes of gaining an edge on “Black Friday”. Many have derided these companies for “going too far”. Let’s remember that “Black Friday” is about the first day of the entire fiscal year that many retailers will turn from loss to break even, that is to profit. They wait for 11 months for this day, so who can blame them for wanting to move it up a few hours to maybe get an edge. There are others who just can’t believe that there were holiday trimmings and Christmas trees in the stores right after Halloween. Yes, that does seem a little much. I am of the mind that “Thanks” must come before “Joy” as I don’t know anyone who has true joy in their life who aren’t also extremely grateful and thankful of what they have. So, yes, I’d like to see us not gloss over Thanksgiving!

Jesus came so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. When we have the full joy of Christ in our lives it is because we recognize and accept what Jesus gave for us and we come from a place of unquestionable gratitude. So, without thanks, there really can’t be joy. As we go into tomorrow with family, friends and loved ones, let’s first give thanks for what God has given for us and to us, and then let’s convert that gratitude to a place of boundless joy to be spread to others.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reference: 1 Thessalonians 5:16 (New Living Translation)