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 1078: Staying Vigilant

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“O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls; they will pray day and night, continually. Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.”

Staying vigilant and keeping watch over our companies, products, deals, services and reputation can be a full-time job. In today’s world we have things like “Net-Promoter” scores, Yelp, Reputation.com, Klout, etc. that are all trying to keep us vigilant in our pursuits of the best and best thought about.  Staying vigilant is not easy. It takes discipline and commitment. As many of your know, I am a runner (although right now I am not as a I battle with a knee issue) and I marvel in the commitment and dedication of the elite distance runners. One of my childhood running heroes was Frank Shorter (the last American to win the Olympic Marathon Gold Medal – 1972 in Munich). Recently he was interviewed and he had this to say about vigilance, “What my childhood taught me was to be eternally vigilant.  Vigilance involves consistency. I learned the solace or routine.”  To be vigilant is certainly all about consistency and sometimes, as Shorter points out, there isn’t any glamor in a routine, but it is always about the routine that we can find consistency and predictability, both which can lead to improvements in quality and service.

God calls each of us to be vigilant in our journey to know Him better and to work and act in His will. Anytime we are striving for something, it takes vigilance to get there. If not, then it might not be something worth pursuing.  What is great about God is that he gives us all the tools and resources we need so it is just up to us to show that vigilance that moves us forward.  We have His Word.  We have prayer to enter into conversation with Him.  We can listen and feel the Holy Spirit moving in our lives.  We have fellow believers for fellowship.  We have our churches for deeper learning and opportunities to serve.  So, yes, it just comes back on us and our willingness to stay vigilant.

Reference:  Isaiah 62:6 (New Living Translation)