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 660: NOW!

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“Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them. If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say, ‘Come back tomorrow, and I’ll help you.”

Imagine having the luxury of our boss coming up to us at work and asking us for something that she/he needs help on and we being able to say, “Sorry boss, too busy to help, let me get back to you tomorrow.” Well, I guess we can do that every now and then but we do it too often and before long the boss doesn’t ask us for anything but our resignation. The same can be said for when our co-workers approach us for help. Yes, we can put them off occasionally, but more often than not we have to stop what we are doing and help them out. “Now” is a very subjective word and not really all that situational. Just about everyone in business is about getting things done “Now”. If we aren’t ready to accommodate and adjust our own priorities to assist others we will get tagged as not being a good team-player or worse, not being good at working with others. It’s a fine line and we all have to walk it each and every day. Our best course of action is to always be ready to help and do the best we can to leave some flex in the schedule knowing that there will be at least one, if not more than one, interruptions to help someone else out each and every day. If we adopt the principle of “now” for our ability and willingness to help others then the interruption and the distraction can seem far less of an impact.

What we do has a lot to do with who we are, or at least who others perceive who we are. If we are not willing to help those who need help, today, then it’s hard for others to see in us the love and caring that we are to be exemplifying. At the core, helping others when they are in need, whether in a big or small way, is a strong sign to others whether or not we are someone who can and will be there for them in other times and ways. We are given the direction from Solomon in Proverbs to not put off our assistance to others because it’s easy for us to do so and we need the constant reminding. It is important because if we don’t get this right, then we can find that we have undermined ourselves and our ability to be positioned to be called upon or asked about what is it like to live a Christ-like life. Today, when approached to help someone else, practice the power of “now” and give of your time and yourself and don’t put it off. You may find that “now” opens up doors you didn’t know were there before.

Reference: Proverbs 3:27 (New Living Testament)