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 942: Marathoning, Part 3 – Endurance

“…let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”

Summer is always a good season for me to think about the importance of endurance.  Maybe it is watching the Tour de France and being totally blown away each year with the endurance that it takes to compete and complete that race.  Or, it is the build up of miles for a Fall marathon.  In this year, I am excited to watch all of the endurance events in the Olympics and see how the athletes prepare and race when the moment comes. Work is a marathon too.  26.2 miles is a lot like all of the year we work looking for a finish line.  Companies must sign up for the marathon or fear that they will come up short when a competitor continues to be there.  Endurance is about training, fitness, pacing and mental strength.  How many times do we sit down a year and think about where our business will be in 5-10 years and how we will get there, or more importantly, how are we readying ourselves to get there?  We would be best to always think in terms of a marathon to be run and be sure we are ready for the long run that is work and business.

Paul tells us to run with endurance, but not just run with endurance any run, but to run the race God has put before us.  Paul does not tell us the distance of that race, but we know that the race of being human does not stop and lasts a lifetime.  We have a marathon of faith to run, if we so choose to enter that race.  Let’s consider that each step we take, at home, at work, with purpose or for leisure is about the race and the finish line that God has set before us. Let’s think today about the different aspects of our lives that are either keeping us moving forward or setting us back and deal with each accordingly so that we may have the endurance to complete the full race and so with God’s favor!

Reference: Hebrews 12:1 (New Living Translation)