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 1454: Give Me Some Time…

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“After sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone.”

Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were renowned for their time away that they took/take each year.  Steve would disappear away from it all for one week after MacWorld concluded.  I was in conversation with him going into a MacWorld and he said to me, “I will talk to you after ‘my week”.  I loved that: “my week”.  He considered his week off the grid as “his”.  Bill Gates does the same and he says that some of his longest thoughts have come from that time away from it all.  When we go on vacation we take our laptops, phones, tablets and never quite unplug.  What we could all benefit from would be more real time away.  True unplugging with a screen sabbath and avoiding all things with plugs and batteries.  The quiet is frightening for a time and then our brain starts to refresh and that time away can be the best and most needed time we can have.

Between miracles Jesus would spend quiet time alone.  He modeled what it meant to come off the grid and go spend time with His Father in prayer.  Oh, to have been able to watch, see and hear what happened in His solo and quiet time.  I imagine hearing a conversation that was never more intimate and conversational than that He would have with God the Father.  I also imagine that there were times of peace and times of intensity as He grappled with what was to come, but never wavering or questioning, always confirming with God what He was to do to be in God’s will.  We need our quiet time if we are going to hear what He has said and written for us.  Are we getting enough of this precious time to deal with all else that is facing us?

Reference: Matthew 14: 23 (New Living Translation)