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 883: Bumped

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“So those who are last now will be first then, and those who are first will be last.”

Anyone who ever travels much has been bumped at some point; bumped from a flight or bumped down from a class of service.  Patti and I were heading to Kentucky earlier in the week.  The day started great and we were settled in our first-class seats on the American flight when there was a mechanical issue with the plane.  What happened next, after hours of waiting was that we ended up on another plane, far in the back, in middle seats with her in front of me and me one row back.  It was not comfortable and not a lot of fun, which was much different from what we had expected that morning. Instead, we ended up being bumped and having to go with the flow.  We all get bumped at some point.  Sometimes it in some class of service, but sometimes it can be in our careers and in much more important areas of our business.  I was talking to a friend recently who had a business deal fall apart on him, for no fault of his own, and what seemed a few days earlier like a sure thing, dematerialized into nothing at all.  He felt that feeling of being bumped.  Later, I listened to an executive who was on the rise in his career only to have his boss replaced and within weeks having the conversation with HR that the new boss was interested in taking the position in a different direction and that this executive was now out of a job.  He felt significantly bumped.  It happens, so we might as well be ready. But like so many things in life, it is always harder to be ready for it when it happens to us.

Jesus gives us a whole different angle on being bumped.  He reminds us that at the time when we feel like we should be first, that what we really need to be thinking and realizing is that the better place for us may well be further back in the line, down the ladder, or behind the pack.  Let’s try today to not focus as much on the front or the top so that when the bump does come that instead of feeling angry, betrayed, or desperate, that we instead put our trust forward to Him and recognize that no matter where we get bumped, we are right where He wants us to be!

Reference: Matthew 20:16 (New Living Testament)