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 1057: The Truth Can Hurt

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“Then Joshua said to Achan, ‘My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, by telling the truth. Make your confession and tell me what you have done. Don’t hide it from me.'”

Tonight on the OWN Network, Oprah Winfrey will air her interview with Lance Armstrong, who apparently will be telling us the truth for the first time in his cycling career.  The show may well garner Oprah her highest ratings since she signed off of her daily talk show (that is if anyone can find the OWN Network on their cable guide). Unfortunately for our society there won’t be any shocking admissions from Armstrong, just a lot of sadness and hurt created and the world will have to decide if he will be forgiven or not. I am too sad over the whole thing.  I was one of the people who took him on his word and believed that he was different from the rest; almost super-human, a person able to push and take his body to a place no one else has been able to find. I watched all the scientific studies of how he had extraordinary VO2 uptake, lungs that could process more oxygen than anything seen before, a heart that was like a hot-rod piston that sent rich blood to screaming muscles, and a mind that could not be beaten or accept defeat, no matter the pain or weariness. But now, he is none of any of that.  Maybe it wouldn’t be as bad if he hadn’t compounded the lie by year after year building himself up for another victory and public grandstanding. Maybe had he not created a brand around himself that symbolized that the worst could be defeated if we bound together and contributed to find the cure of what takes so many of our loved ones from us.  Look, we all have faults and we all hurt other people and ourselves in our lives.  Companies and people all know that the truth can hurt, but those who correct their ways, take their lumps and move on can find a better path. We’ve seen it before and that is likely what Lance will begin to do tonight.  It is only going to be harder for him because the world watched, cheered and defended him through seven Tour de France victories and the build up of The LiveStrong Foundation. How many lessons do we need to learn? My prayer is that Armstrong feels the burden to turn this all around and become one who through contriteness, humility and concern can teach and model to others the value of the truth and the power of recognition and change.

We are all far from perfect and this is why Jesus came to save us from our own sins.  The truth that we must continue to align ourselves with is the truth that is given to us through Him. As best we can, let’s be reminded that the truth should be lived out daily in all that we do. We have choices that we will make all day long and many will involve telling the truth. Let’s not find ourselves on the wrong side of the choice.

Reference: Joshua 7:19 (New Living Translation)