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 1000: Upgrades

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“God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.”

“The line was long and we had been delayed, waiting anxiously for what felt like forever”.  Where do you think I am?  If you immediately thought of sitting on an airport tarmac, then you travel as much, if not more, than I do.  Flying and being delayed are becoming synonymous these days.  Seems we are now amazed when we go from one place to another without a hitch and get there on time. I find myself almost bragging when it happens.  What can make all this better of course is that in the midst of the wait and turmoil, the upgrade comes through. That’s always a sweet feeling, but like what we can all expect can be nice, when something we expect doesn’t come through, then we can find ourselves disappointed and sometimes downright depressed. The anticipation of an upgrade can be this way. I read a Facebook posting of a friend who showed up at a United gate to only find out that he was number 41 on a list of 42 people waiting for an upgrade. He wrote asking, “Why even show that list?  Everyone after the three eligible people don’t really need to know where they stand.”  He was saying that when we expect to be upgraded and we don’t get there, then don’t rub our noses in it to make it worse.  It’s an interesting thought and something we should consider as we think about how our customers and consumers interact with us.  What do they expect as a way of “upgrade” and if we can’t give it to them as they expect, then how can we still make them feel special?  Everyone would like an upgrade. Not everyone can get them, but they can still feel good about it if we only put some thought in how that can become the norm.

God’s Kingdom is the opposite of this world when it comes to earthly upgrades . There are none!  He clearly says to us at the sermon on the mount that the meek and humble shall be the inheritors of this world. And we know that the fist shall be last.  We don’t stand in a line and wait for God’s upgrades.  He has given his blessings to all of us and it us up to us to allow Him to reign in our lives to make them real. As we approach this work day let’s see if we can’t put the idea of looking for the upgrades in life out of our minds and instead sit back and let the grace of God flow over and through us, knowing, without doubt, that ours is an eternally promised upgrade to His Kingdom and it is only the move up that we should be focused.  Looking for the upgrades in our work lives and personal lives will only be frustrating. Let’s instead fix our eyes on His eternity and be joyful that our time with Him will soon come.

Reference: Matthew 5:5 (New Living Translation)