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 1935: Shock And Awe

purposed worKING No Comments

“For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth.”

We have heard the words shock and awe many times, but it wasn’t until our wars in the Middle East that “shock and awe” became two words that were linked together indelibly forever in the minds of those who were alive during this particular wartime.  We learned that not only can one experience show and awe, but one can also inflict shock and awe on others. Shock is one thing.  It stuns us. It moves us and motivates us to react but it can also paralyze us.  But, awe is something all together different.  Awe changes us.  As Paul Piff and Dachner Keltner, professors from the University of California found, awe gives us goosebumps and those goosebumps stir something inside of us that makes us want to be better, or do more and better than before.  They would say that it “moves us to do things for the greater good”.  I believe that.  I have sat in sporting events, arts events, churches, and in company meetings where it was impossible to not be in awe. And from that awe, comes an inspiration, a motivation to do more.  To do greater!  It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, we remember these moments for the rest of our lives.

Is there any greater awe than when we see God move in our own lives or in the lives of others?   When we feel that God has spoken to us or through us, we can be sincerely in awe as there is no greater that can stir or move us than the Holy Spirit when He moves within us.  We don’t have to look for the extraordinary to find God moving.  We can hear Him through the smallest and simplest of verses, in the prayer and reflection time, in the words that come from those who we count on for accountability and fellowship.  God can awe us at any moment, even when we least expect Him to do so.

Reference: Psalm 47:2 (New Living Translation)