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 835: Leap Year

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“Those in frequent contact with the things of the world should make good use of them without becoming attached to them, for this world and all it contains will pass away.”

I write Purposed worKING, not for those who lead churches or ministries (although I appreciate their readership, comments, guidance and feedback) but for those who are like me who go about our daily routines from Monday through Saturday in the world of secular work and business. On this “Leap Day”, of a “Leap Year”, it is important to remember that each week when we leave our Sunday services and we “leap” back into the world that is outside of the four walls of our weekly worship and teaching, that this leap is always a big and important one. If you happened to watch the Academy Awards this past Sunday night, you would have seen a special segment done by Cirque du Soleil. About half way through the segment, Patti pointed out that they were doing all of their high wire acts, over the audience and stage, without a net. It was with that recognition that it became really engaging and interesting. What is it about the courage of that type of leap that makes others watch in awe? Each week, we take that same leap. We put ourselves, as believers, back into situations where we are in the world around us that like gravity, wants to pull us down. Yes, we always have the safety net of Christ under us, but when making the leap we still cannot be foolish and we must be disciplined, focused and determined.

We are given the words of Paul on how to ensure that our leaps we make, do not allow us to come into harm’s way. Let’s consider Paul’s words above on this “Leap Day” as we think about how move through the gift of life and the freedom of choice that we have been given. Let us also consider that if we successfully, courageously and consistently continue to make that leap in the right way, that others might also watch in awe and curiosity of the strengths of our beliefs.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 7:31 (New Living Testament)