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 1267: First Moves

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“So Barnabas and Saul were sent out by the Holy Spirit.”

While I was on vacation last week, I checked in online when I could (we had very sketchy internet) and I saw that SnapChat had turned down a $3B offer from Facebook.  Oh, to be a first mover. SnapChat popped up with the ability to send a picture and then it would disappear from the internet.  I’ve not figured out what real business can be built from this, but it is clear that they have captured the attention of lots of people, including Facebook, who is willing to pay three times more than what they paid for Instagram.  Being the first mover in a market is still worthwhile. While hard to know if you will be the one that sticks, getting there first still has its advantages. Like its’ service, SnapChat could be here today, and gone tomorrow, but right now, they are first.  We all have some opportunity that when innovating we can find a first mover advantage.  Sometimes it may be that someone, someplace else has done it already, but this is the first time your consumers or customers will have experienced what you are offering.  Sit and think and consider what you have in the hopper that you can take advantage of being the first mover.

Through the lens of the account of Saul/Paul and his journeys, the Pastor at our church (cornerstone-sf.org) is exploring what it meant for Paul to be the first mover of the Good News outside of the Jewish community. There are many great lessons here, and I was reminded yesterday of the challenges and rewards that can come from having the courage to make a move forward. Paul was a first mover.  It took extraordinary courage and commitment for him to do what he did to move God’s message to the Gentiles.  He is a model for us as without question we each have a “first move” to make our workplaces as it relates to bringing glory to God in all that we do.  It could be the change of a habit, a word of kindness, an hour of listening to someones concerns, stepping up for the job that no one else wants to do, the correction of a wrong, the day without a cursed word coming from your mouth.  Whatever it is, God is giving all of us a “first move” to make and He will be there to support us if we are willing to just move!

Reference: Acts 13:4 (New Living Translation)