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 1462: Hold It In

purposed worKING No Comments

“Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper— it only leads to harm.”

I’m playing golf in Ireland this week.  What a treat it is and nothing like I have ever done before.  New courses that are hard in themselves but so different in terrain, growth in the rough, sand, and wind that seems to never stop blowing.  I’m with a good group of guys but every now and then frustration will ignite into temper and they get angry with themselves.  Did I say, “they?”  I meant to say, “we”. (smile).  It dawned on me yesterday that we as human beings can even get angry over something we call, “playing”.  Think about how many times in the day that we get angry about something.  It can be something little that triggers our temper and before we know it, it’s turned into a rage inside of us. Others might not see it, or hear it, but it is still happening.  That time that is lost in productivity and efficiency is enough alone to want to control ourselves.  Imagine a workplace where the boss just started the day with, “We don’t get angry here”.  We probably would breathe a little easier about our mistakes, more easily take different points of view, and more courageously take risks.

The saying is, “Life is too short”.  I’d add that “Eternity is very long”.  When we lose our temper, as the Bible says, it only leads to harm.  But, the harm can be just as great, if not greater, to those around us. We leave our footprints where ever we step, so let’s be careful about what we leave when get angry and others are affected and impacted by our example. Is there something today that just needs to be let go of and anger replaced with resolve and understanding?

Reference: Psalm 37:8 (New Living Translation)