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 1385: Resilience

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“Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.”

I attended a graduation ceremony yesterday and the theme of one of the speaker was “Resilience”.  I woke this morning to read in the New York Times that the former Editor, Jill Abramson, spoke at Wake Forest on the same topic.  The speaker I saw runs a very successful theater organization that grants Masters of Fine Arts in Acting.  She is long-tenured and at the top of her game.  Jill Abramson, is recently unexpectedly fired from her job and trying to figure out what to do next.  Resilience is important in the best of times, and the worst of times. As both speakers highlighted, without resilience we end up going nowhere as we give up and let the forces that are beat us down and make us quit. It’s an interesting question to ask; “How much resilience does our organization and its people have?”  Cultures with great amounts of resilience can survive and thrive through the toughest of times.  Those without it, likely die.

It’s hard to think of any example of resilience greater than the life that Jesus led. None of us will ever face the negative forces of both Satan and humans that Jesus had to overcome.  He did all of this because on the back side, you and I would benefit.  Could it be that the secret to being resilient is being driven by love?  If we love Him with all that we have, then we will be able to stand up to all that the world will put on us. Today, we will be called on to be resilient.  I can’t say what it will be, but it will happen to all of us.  Will we be resilient in a Christ-like way?  With our calling upon him for strength, we can!

Reference:  Ephesians 6:13 (New Living Testament)