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 933: Marvel Superpowers

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“With joy you will drink deeply from the fountain of salvation”

Last week I went to see the new Spiderman movie in 3D.  This is not a movie review, but I will say it was pretty cool and I felt like I was 10 years old for the two hours and that the imagination that I had at 10 years old was more than satisfied.  The Marvel Comic movies haven’t come about just by accident.  Years ago I had the privilege to sit in the room with the senior executive team of Marvel as we listened to them talk about their assets and how they were going to expand their catalog of 4000+ characters into many different and new mediums. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the foresight (or imagination) to buy the company then and there on the spot for a few hundred million dollars (Disney bought them for $4 Billion just a few year later).  What Marvel has done is take a few simple lessons and stuck with them and become a huge success – and they didn’t need real “superpowers” to get there.  The three lessons they recently laid out for Wired Magazine were: 1) Embrace all mediums, both new and old: Marvel didn’t abandon retailers or their core business when they moved to digital and movies. Instead they used the new mediums to make their comics cool again.  2) All customers can be treated equally: Marvel didn’t penalize those who bought from the newsstand versus just treating their subscribers well.  All purchasers at retail stands got free digital access and promotions to other deals.  3) Make an ecosystem to create value: Marvel has just scratched the surface of stitching together all of the offerings across their traditional and new outlets.  Expect to see much more that will allow all of us to access and experience the Marvel Universe in ways we can’t even now imagine.  Good lessons for all of us from what was once just a comic book company.

As we consider what lessons we can bring to our own lives, let’s not forget that God also gives us His superpowers if we only remember to go to the source to establish and renew them.  Like many of the characters in the comic world there is a place where their powers are drawn from.  In our spiritual life we have our own fountain of power to draw upon continuously. If we desire the superpower that God wants to give us they are not far from us right now – they are found in His Word, in prayer and in fellowship with other believers.  What’s holding you back today from tapping into His power source?  There are many around us that need to have something in their lives that they can marvel at to trigger their belief in our Savior.  Can you be the one today to demonstrate His superpowers?

Reference: Isaiah 12:3 (New Living Translation)