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 1155: New Paint Job

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“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun”

Yesterday, Patti and I flew from SFO to JFK on American Airlines.  The airline is right now in transition to what they are calling the “New American” (#newamerican).  As we sat on the runway at SFO we could see the transition happening right in front of us with many of the new planes with the new paint schemes.  I thought about what it feels like to get a “new paint job” as a company.  It’s exciting, but at the same time a time of anxiety.  There are new costs, higher expectations and a far amount of circumspection from the cynics. Will they make it?  Have they overspent? When will we see the real outputs?  It’s all part of the dance, but once committed to change, then sticking with it and having the courage to not turn back is a large part of success.  All it would take now to derail the change would be someone in the Boardroom of American to say something like, “I don’t know if I really like the way that new tail paint design looks after all.”  While it’s easy to say, “We can always paint over what we don’t like”, with organizational change and new beginnings, the changes are way more critical than just the new paint job!

When we make the true decision to believe and  follow Jesus, we become a new person in Christ. This new beginning is one that we can live out the rest of our earthly lives and into eternity.  There isn’t any second guessing.  If we truly set our heart towards Christ then we will move forward in a new direction.  From that point, it is incumbent upon us to also spread the news of what God can do for anyone and what He has done for us.  We have many outlets to live out and be the example of Christ in our lives and none better than where we work.  If we consider that each and every day is like the new paint job that we can spread around the office, then others will see and recognize the freshness, the newness and the feeling of hope and opportunity.  What color will you paint the office today?  Think about it!

Reference: 2 Corinthians 5:17 (New Living Translation)