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 1073: Valley of Decision

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“Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision. There the day of the Lord will soon arrive.”

Last night I had the opportunity to attend the GRAMMYs in Los Angeles.  Our seats are just up to the right of the stage a few rows off of the floor.  It’s a great vantage point for the stage but also to slightly look down on the floor for all of the anxious artists, managers, producers and labels who are waiting to see if they win, or not.  If you watch someone close enough you can see the nervousness build as their award category approaches.  There are a whole lot of people down on that floor in what looks like the bottom of a valley waiting on a decision that can change the course and trajectory of their career.  While it is awesome to be GRAMMY nominated, once you are a winner you are always known as a GRAMMY Award-winning artist.  We don’t have many awards in other industries that are as prestigious or as-long lasting as what the entertainment industry does with their annual recognition.  But that doesn’t mean that we don’t each have some decision that we wait on in our business that is also course changing.  These might come seasonally, annually or even weekly.  Knowing how to handle ourselves when we sit in the valley of decision so that win, lose, tie, or not get any recognition at all doesn’t ruffle us or get in the way of moving the business forward, is the key.

I  watched the movie “Flight” (I had to watch it by myself in a hotel room stay because Patti won’t watch it given her fear of flying) and without giving away the story, Captain Whittaker, the role that Denzel Washington plays and was Oscar nominated for, has his moment in the valley of decision.  We learn what he decides to do and how it impacts the rest of his life.  For many, God allows us to find our way into our own valley of decision to make the decision to follow Him.  While the valley of decision doesn’t always mean that we have hit bottom; certainly many come to Him without a crisis, it is for sure that we have to face ourselves in that moment and be willing to be brutally honest in the decision to put ourselves second and Him first.  We must ask ourselves: where are we walking along the valley of decision and have we decided and re-decided to walk through that valley with God being the One to lead us out?

Reference: Joel 3:14 (New Living Translation)