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 1990: Pillars or Paint?

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“Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

I was at an event on Columbus Day in New Hampshire where a United States Senator was trying to explain how one has to find compromise to be able to work with others who don’t share the same views.  He said that he queries his staff on every issue as to whether it is an issue of pillars or paints?  What he means by that is that one can’t, or shouldn’t, try and move or give up on pillars.  But, we can certainly change the paint, and we can change it more than once, until we get it right.  Pillars, though, once moved can be a big problem if we get it wrong.  This same thing can be said to be true when we think about what we change and what we address inside of our company product and service strategies. The hardest part is knowing the difference, but that exercise and determination is well worth the time and energy.

God gave us pillars when He told us what the two greatest commandments are to be for each and every one of us. And, if we believe and act upon His pillars then all the rest is just paint.  Yet, to be honest with ourselves, it’s daily hard to recognize paint versus pillars.  But, it is what we must do.

Reference: Matthew 22:36-40 (New Living Translation)