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 642: Work On Display

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“The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship.”

Those of us who don’t work with our hands don’t have many opportunities to put our work on display. I guess you could say that every interaction and every meeting is a display of our work and that would be true, but putting our work on display to me means being able to stop everything around us and allow for others to see the fruits of our labors and the craft, art, experience and skill that goes into making something that others will view and appreciate. Those who do something with their hands, and their minds, get to do this. It can be something behind a display case or as open and as grand as building, a park, a car, a sculpture, the performance of a piece of music, or a painting. Whatever it is, when someone creates something that is going to go on display something extra gets added and that extra is many times what makes the display something special or extraordinary. It’s the moment of having to have the work done that can be the driver of going above and beyond to get it done. We would be better in our work world if everyone had a chance to display their work. Pencils and thinking would sharpen. Goals, budgets and timelines would tighten. Teamwork would advance. Our ability to complete and strive to exceed in pleasing our customers would go up. To have that same commitment and dedication to perfect something is what the artisan or craftsman has that makes them unique. If Corporate America could capture more of this type of thinking and attitude then think how much better we would be.

God’s handiwork finds itself on display regularly. As the verse says, “the skies display his craftsmanship”. The skies are not the only place we have to look to see His display. We have to look no further than in the mirror to see something that He created that goes on display daily. If we think of ourselves that way then the privilege and burden we carry is increased. We do carry that responsibility and we are to think of ourselves as a display of what God wants others to see in Him. We carry His reputation and His image with us into every meeting and every occasion in our lives. Today is God calling you to become a better display of Him? He wants you to be the best you can be in bringing glory to Him in all that you do, so he needs you to be sure that what if on display of Him in you is the best that you can be.

Reference: Psalm 19:1 (New Living Testament)