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 1219: I.D.P and F.O.M.O

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We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith…

That thing in our hand, that you might now be using to read this post, has taken us over.  No one could ever imagine or predict that our smartphones would evolve into an appendage that when we are separated an anxiety is created that can’t be taken away until the phone is back in our hands.  I read the other day that someone said they have “I.D.P.”, otherwise known as “Information Deprivation Paranoia”.  Another way to put it is what Anil Dash called, “F.O.M.O.”, or “Fear of Missing Out”.  We are driven by these needs now that it sometimes feels like information and accessibility is distracting us from living out our lives.  No device meetings are smart when we want to talk and solve a problem.  There will always be someone who says they need their phone, tablet or computer for more information.  That’s probably true, but for that moment, they can take a note to gather that data later, but for now, let’s be in the moment and talk.  When was the last time you considered going a day with no devices to just see how much more conversant, attentive and aware of others you can be?  We need devices.  Information and accessibility are awesome.  They are the gifts of our time, but too much of anything can cause problems.  When we start having fear of missing out, or paranoia about not being in the know, or separation anxiety from that device we own, then we have probably gone too far.

If we are fixed on Jesus, focused on Him, in His Word and in conversation with Him daily, then we will never miss out, and we should never have any fears or paranoia about not being connected.  The world is the distraction, He is the signal to which we are to tune towards.  Today, we will have many distractions.  Where will we put our focus?

Reference: Hebrews 12:2 (New Living Translation)