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 716: Networking

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But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.”

Networking to find a job isn’t the only type of networking that we do in business. We are also always networking with other people inside and outside of our industry to learn more about opportunities that we don’t want to miss. I recently watched the movie “Too Big To Fail” (great cast, fantastic plot that couldn’t be made up, but too much of in-your-face writing for my taste) and among many other things, the movie reinforced the importance of always being networked and as much as possible on the good side of those we work around. A few different relationships that were stronger and better connected and some things might have been different for a few of the banks that were reeling in 2008. To be well networked is to know yourself as well as you might want to know others. It also means to be willing to give some of yourself to others for their needs, not always wanting to satisfy only what you are trying to achieve for yourself. It is good business to stay truly networked and connected, in the right way. One never knows what we might learn, know, and need to know from someone who is thought by others as a competitor.

We personally network all day long. We meet new people and we get our chance to help and also tell our story. In 1 Peter we are challenged to know ourselves well enough that when our time comes to tell others about ourselves that we are ready to give an answer about what makes us hopeful. It’s about having our story and testimony on the tip of our tongues at all time. It’s also knowing how to do this in a way that as we are told is done with “Gentleness and respect”. Today, there will come an opportunity to tell someone else about yourself. How ready will you be to expand your network with the answer about yourself that can open the eyes and hearts of others?

Reference: 1 Peter 3:15 (New Living Testament)