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 1429: Fans, Followers and Friends

purposed worKING No Comments

“If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine.”

Social media loves to campaign for, entice and celebrate fans and followers. Someone said to me recently that they were impressed by the number of “followers” I have on various social media platforms.  I was gracious in accepting the compliment but I reminded them that the words followers, fans and friends are so watered down now that it’s hard to know what they mean, or not.  Modern terms are: A fan – someone who roots for you and will fill the stands to support you when the weather is good and you are winning.  A follower – people who look to your example and creations to shape and guide them, when it is good for them.  A friend – someone who likes to say they know you and that you know them back.  We are in a distorted time for what is called a fan, a follower and friend. There was a time when all three had words associated with them like, “die-hard”, “devout”, “true” and “lifelong”.  In our businesses we applaud ourselves with our Likes, Followers, Friends and Fans.  But, what are they really unless we actively engage them more deeply beyond the definitions of today’s social media dictionary?

Jesus told us what it means to be a follower.  To be a follower it means to make a sacrifice of oneself all the way to surrendering one’s own priorities and life to conform and become like Christ.  We have many followers of us, but who are we really following?  Let’s not forget that how we follow Christ has a profound effect on those that “follow” us.  Others are looking for who they should truly follow eternally and how we establish our example is important, beyond what we know.

Reference: Matthew 10:38 (New Living Translation)