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 1109: Half and Half

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“Because you have obeyed my command to persevere, I will protect you from the great time of testing that will come upon the whole world to test those who belong to this world.”

One of the harder conversations to have as an investor or a Board Member is to tell the enthusiastic, optimistic, excited, anxious, CEO and/or Founder, that history and experience says to always plan on half and half; half the revenue forecasted and that the time you think it will take to get that revenue is underestimated by half. You can almost see their spirit drain from them if this isn’t communicated in the correct way.  What I see happen a lot is that the investors/board members don’t want to have that tough conversation so instead they will use other forms of control and influence versus communication. This is when we see the metering out of funding, or an increase in oversight from the Board, or the increased frequency of reporting.  It’s a hard lesson to learn, but once that pattern is recognized and appreciated then going forward the plans are already baked with half and half to better ensure for success.

What happens in our lives when we are forced to have to deal with the half and half phenomena is that we have to learn to persevere.  Perseverance is hard and it’s not what everyone can/will do.  Those who can/do are looked up to and respected.  When we are taking God to work with us and asking for Him to give us the perseverance, motivation, commitment and energy to finish strong and well, then we are doing what He desires; for us to lean on Him. He promises His protection if we stick with Him!  The journey of life is not easy.  You don’t need me to tell you that.  But, we all need others who will prop us up, encourage us and make sure that we aren’t quitting at the half.  Can you be that someone to someone else today?

Reference: Revelation 3:10 (New Living Translation)