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 3K165: Pounding Our Heads Against The Wall

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“One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up.”

It’s not uncommon to feel as though we are pounding our heads against the wall to get someone else to listen to us, or to get an idea accepted, or to create change, etc.  There was a set of interesting articles this last week about woodpeckers.  Yes, the bird. The research was asking the question, how is it that woodpeckers, who do indeed pound their heads (with the beaks) against walls and trees and buildings, don’t get brain damage.  Apparently, they are very, very smart with small and tight compact brain structures and when they use their force of the their body they do so in a unique way there is shock absorption. It’s way more complicated than I am summarizing, but it seems to me that if we are very intentional, very focused and smart about our efforts that the banging of our heads against the wall (metaphorically) doesn’t have to get us down or set us back.  When it is for a purpose, it can be worth it.

There might be something today in our work and our jobs that is just not sitting well with us.  We might be saying, “Something has to give or I just can’t stay here and do this anymore”.  You may be right but before the decision is made have we taken this issue or challenge to God in prayer and done so continuously until we are led to feel that we have an understanding of what we should do next?  Prayer is not pounding our head against anything, it is the way forward and Jesus told His Disciples to pray and never give up.  Prayer with purpose has breakthrough power.

Reference:  Luke 18:1 (New Living Translation)