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 807: The Finish Line

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”

Work is never really finished. well, that is if if the company is committed to growth and expansion. Even short-term wins and completions are actually starting points for new initiatives and goals. When companies are at their best is when there is enough of an exciting and over-arching vision that all of the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly work is never done, but always pushing towards that vision. Even when people leave their positions the work will stay and someone else picks it up and goes. I can remember working with people who were getting ready to retire and it was hard for them to find the right time to make the leap as they still felt there was so much left to do (or at least the conscientious people felt this way.) As we lead our companies, or work on a team, we are best off to sign up for the Marathon and ready ourselves for a long run, and if we get to pull up short, then great, but otherwise our head is in the run for the long one. That’s a lot better than thinking there is a finish line that is there, but gets moved out.

Our work to bring glory to God in all that we do never finishes either. Each and every day that we bring our talents to our work, doing the best we can to set an example that others will want to follow and see Jesus within us, is only just another step on a journey that should never end until we get to stand face to face with Jesus. The most awesome of things is that God gives us all of the tenacity, perseverance, energy and power we need to keep going until we get to see the finish line, if we only allow Him to give all to us that He so desperately wants to give. I know I write of it often, but I was reminded of what God wants to be with us the other day when I saw a film clip of a father going off to work and his son (maybe 5 years old) standing at the front door begging to go to work with Daddy. As the father drives off the son stands in the front window looking so sad. God so wants us to take Him to work with us so that he can do His work within us. Just imagine what it would be like if we all were committed to do so. There’s a finish line to aspire to reach!

Reference: Philippians 1:6 (New Living Testament)