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 1376: When Innovation Flops

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“The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together!’

No, I mean, when innovation “Fosbury Flops”!  It’s a great thing.  I read that Dick Fosbury was recently presented a lifetime achievement award at the Tribeca Film Festival Disruptive Innovation Awards.  I think this is so cool as what one person did, changed the way everybody else did it, and no one ever went back.  If you don’t know the story it goes like this. At 16 years old, Fosbury started experimenting with a different way to clear the bar during a high jump. At the time, everyone used the “Straddle” method where they rolled over face forward.  Fosbury kept perfecting his backward arching method that eventually took him all the way to the Olympic Gold Medal title in 1968. Today, everyone who competes uses his method.  His story of innovation is a great one.  He saw a way to do something different, had the courage to try, and put up with the ridicule and teasing along the way. He stuck with it until he perfected the technique and showed that his method could win him the highest title known. And, all of that going backwards and not being able to see where he might fall. It’s a great story of starting and finishing what others said couldn’t be done.

God challenges us to finish well and when we do, we will hear Him say to us, Well done!”  To finish we must start. To finish we must continue. To finish we must be ready for the new and the different.  To finish we must be willing to accept our flops and know that when we fall, there is someone to fall into His arms safely. God doesn’t ask us to be the highest jumper, but He does ask us to try.  And, He can turn our flops into stories for Him.  What are we holding back today for fear of failure or flopping?

Reference:  Matthew 25:21 (New Living Translation)