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 797: Entrustments

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“When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife.”

Every day, in every company, someone gets a new job. From the top job to the entry level roles, someone else entrusts some part of the business to someone new. What we all know, from experience in many cases, is that this entrusting can be nerve-wracking and downright frightening. But, just because we worry and are concerned doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t entrust and allow others to grow and develop. There are lots of studies on how we can grow people and companies, but one thing has always stood out to me is that the most successful people are those who were entrusted with some large responsibility before they were chronologically or experiential ready. If one survives the deep end of the pool and then thrives then there is confidence and learning that happens and gets multiplied within the person. Others around also rise to the occasion. We each have many occasions to allow people to reach for their full potential. If not held back, trusted, and supported they can do much and go far.

I can only stand back and marvel at what Joseph, the adopted Father of Jesus, must have felt when he learned he was being entrusted, By God, with the raising and support of Jesus. Not being a biological father, I marvel even more in Joseph’s commitment to take on the responsibility of a child not his own flesh and blood and to do so in way that was far from expected. Joseph then went on to raise Jesus as if he was his own and I believe felt all the pains, joys, anxiety, concern, and hopefulness for his son, Jesus, as any other father would. We never know in life what we will be entrusted, but whatever it may be, big or small, we should only need to look to the willingness of Joseph to know what it means to be entrusted. Let’s not forget what have already as we enter into this most high and special weekend.

Purposed worKING will be taking a holiday break until Tuesday January 3rd. Thank you for your support and readership and let me wish each and every one of you a very, very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Reference: Matthew 1:24 (New Living Testament)