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 940: Marathoning, Part 1 – The Long Run

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“…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.”

I am training for a Marathon in the fall. It will be my 7th.  I am determined to qualify for Boston but I don’t know that I will have the speed to get it done.  But, if I keep running at the same pace I am now for another few years, then I might be able to qualify because the times go down the older you get.  This approach doesn’t work for business.  If we stay the same speed then we get passed up by someone else, but at the same time we have to be able to run the long race as business is certainly not about the short sprint.  I worked at Pepsi when they celebrated their 100th Anniversary.  That was nearly 20 years ago and they continue on, doing basically the same thing they did when they started back in North Carolina, but everyday trying to improve, become more efficient, become smarter and innovating.  This is what the marathon is about.  It’s lots and lots of hours and miles trying to get better and better so that the long run doesn’t feel all that bad.  Is your business thinking and acting like there is a marathon to be run?

The Christian life is also one of endurance and fortitude for the long run.  Jesus’ life journey, while shorter than the years we may live, was one of endurance and relentless commitment to the finish. When we think of how we need to train and ready ourselves we need to be putting the hours into our time in God’s Word, on our knees, and in fellowship with other believers.  How diligent are we “putting in the miles” or are we just getting by and hoping for the best results?  That was not the way of Jesus and that is not the life He modeled and calls on us to live.  Let’s be sure that we are committing, or recommitting to the long run with Jesus.

Reference:  Hebrews 12:1 (New Living Translation)