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 698: Momentum

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“For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”

We are just a few days away from August, which gets called the the “dog days of summer”. This old adage refers to those hot, steamy, sweltering days when even the dogs don’t do anything but lie on the floor or in the shade looking for rest and cool. We aren’t really that different as the summer months trigger vacation time and for lots of companies, downtime. Morale in the summer is sometimes hard to measure as people’s minds are in so many different places that getting focused on the business at hand becomes hard. In Europe, many companies shut down for the month of August knowing that they are pushing water uphill for productivity. Keeping momentum is hard for a business. One rough quarter or even a bad product review or customer complaint can stall or divert momentum. This is why it is so important for businesses to have a longer-term compelling and exciting vision that aligns everyone and keeps the momentum going, even when things slow down. Without this, we are vulnerable to any which thing that comes along and distracts us or looks at all to be negative.

The same can be said in our own lives. God expects us to lean on Him and plow through the difficulties of life. Like a business that doesn’t have a vision or strategy, the same can happen to us if we don’t have our focus in the right place. What God does for us is to give us Him as a place to firmly fix our gaze and then allow ourselves to be pulled up and over the mountains of life. Paul tells us that we have all the desire and power we need to do those things that are pleasing to God. All we have to do is allow Him to continue to work within us and to tap into that unlimited reserve that builds momentum for us. Clearly, it is up to us to allow God into our lives, but what a blessing to have Him there for us at all times.

Reference: Philippians 2:13 (New Living Testament)