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 1216: Fessing Up

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“Yes, what joy for those whose record the Lord has cleared of sin, whose lives are lived in complete honesty”

I’m reading a book by Wharton Professor, Adam Grant called “Give and Take”.  It’s a fascinating study about those who predominately give unselfishly, those who weigh the benefits of giving against what they will receive in return, and those who take from others. The book also describes those who are one or the other but take on other characteristics so that we can’t tell who they really are.  Ken Lay from Enron is used an example of someone on the outside looked like a huge giver because of his philanthropy, etc. but those who knew him best always knew him as a taker and knew the rest of his endeavors were a facade. And before he died, we all knew what type of taker he was.  We all have our faults. We all make mistakes.  We are never perfect.  No one expects that from us, but what is expected is a level of transparency and honesty that allows us to fess up and not hide anything from others.  We all know co-workers we just don’t trust.  At the root these are the people who don’t fess up but instead hide, deflect or accuse others of causing their own faults.  We have disdain for companies and countries who don’t fess up.  Let’s consider that our own personal coverups are just as damaging.

God asks us to be honest and transparent with others and most certainly with Him.  It’s so funny that we think we can hide who really are from God.  With God there are no secrets, there is only our own ability to be honest with Him in who we really are and ask for His mercy, forgiveness and help to make us better. Nothing feels better than a good fessing up to God.  It’s not too late to restart this day by stopping for a moment and fessing up to God our sins and asking Him to help us in thwarting anything that we will do that will get in the way of our honest and open relationship with Him.  Go ahead, fess up!  You’ll feel much better about it!

Reference: Psalm 32:2 (New Living Translation)