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 1468: Stumbling Blocks

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“Jesus turned to Peter and said, “Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”

I am amazed at how often we hear companies talk about the stumbling blocks that they perceive are stopping them from moving forward; regulations and policies, unknowns, lack of talent, financing, the Board, taxes, suppliers, etc.  But, really how many of those are true stumbling blocks or just reasons to complain?  Let’s put it this way, there are have been times that are tougher, issues that are bigger to overcome, and more reasons than there are now to not get ahead.  Those that see the positive sides and look at the negatives as only slight hurdles to be jumped successfully, make it and thrive.  When you hear people grumbling about the stumbling blocks, challenge them with now “why” they will get the company down, but “how” we can turn that into something positive.

When Peter thought he was doing the right thing, Jesus retorted strongly.  Jesus loved Peter and while He addressed Peter as Satan, it might have been that He was looking right through Peter and making a strong statement to the unseen and then, He brought it back to Peter by making sure that Peter knew he needed to get his mind right.  We don’t want to be stumbling blocks to anyone who is inquisitive about our faith or pursuing a Christ-like life.  We need to be sure that we have our mind on the things of God so that the things of the world don’t cloud or sway our words and actions. Start today with filling your mind with those things of God and hold onto them so that there isn’t any stumbling going on today!

Reference:  Matthew 16:23 (New Living Translation)