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 863: Noise Cancellation

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“Be still, and know that I am God! I will be honored by every nation. I will be honored throughout the world.”

As you read the title of this post you might think I am going to talk about the technology of noise cancellation headphones like Bose, Dr. Dre, Skullcandy, etc. I could as that technology is great for those of us who travel frequently and get tired of the airplane engine drone. But, I am not going to write about that technology. Instead I am going to relay an interview I saw on TV last night between Oprah Winfrey and Lady Gaga. Patti just can’t enough of Oprah so we now DVR Oprah’s extended format interview segments on Sunday night. Patti convinced me to watch the interview and I was drawn into the segment because it was about her Mother and the very strong, and actually quite grounded relationship she has with her daughter that is more normal than relationships I have seen between non-celebrity/normal moms and daughters. Lady Gaga’s Mother is a person of committed faith and it shows in how she talks to her daughter. During the interview Lady Gaga talked openly about her creative process and how important it is for her to find a place of stillness and peace to “cancel out the noise”. The noise she talked about was the world that screams at her about who she is or who she should be. Whether you like what she is, or stands for or not, you have to appreciate her raw talent and the discipline that she uses to find her creativity. Not to mention, the very accomplished business person she has proven to be. “Cancelling the noise” is a good lesson for us all and as we try to create, we may have to find our own quite spot to do so, figuratively or literally.

To hear God, we also have to be still. We are told so. If we think we are going to hear God in the midst of the noise of the world, then we are going to have to be finely attuned. Instead, God gives us the instruction that we need. “Be still and know that I am God.” How committed have we been to canceling out the noise of the world so we take time to be still with Him. He can and will work within us if we will get rid of the noise long enough to find stillness. Can we take a few minutes today; at our desk with the door closed, in our car before we pull out of the parking lot, in a quite corner for just a moment to be still with Him and allow Him to cancel out and replace the noise?

Reference: Psalm 46:10 (New Living Testament)