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 636: All

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“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.”

Have you ever had a conversation with your boss where the boss asks you to “give half of all you have to give”? Of course you haven’t. What our bosses want from us is to give “all” of what we have to give towards any of the work that is to be done. Business is an all or nothing play. No one who has ever gone into business for themselves expects to succeed if they aren’t willing to give it their all. We all know the stories of those who mortgaged all they had to make their business work. Even those who end up failing are proud of giving their all to making it work even though it didn’t. In the start-up world, entrepreneurs get credit and credibility even for trying and failing if they truly gave it their all. When we get inside of bigger organizations something gets lost in the translation and we run into people and may even end up working along side of them where they are not giving their all and it is obvious to others. These people are not usually welcomed into the team and if they are there, they are not well-respected. They can also be very damaging to others around them who might have the tendency to not push themselves and slack off. It is important that those who manage or lead the culture of the organization remove or change the behaviors and actions of those who don’t want to give their all. We are in a business climate that demands us all to give our all. That doesn’t mean at the sacrifice of our health, our families or our relationships, but when we are at work, let’s try and set an example of one who gives their all to objectives of our work.

We also know where else we have to give our all. When in Luke the religious expert was asked by Jesus how the man interprets the laws of Moses and he answers that we are to give our all to the Lord, he spoke for what we all must do. God asks us to give our “all” to Him. That is our heart, our soul, our minds and our strength. Giving “all” is a hallmark of the Christian life. Are we giving our all today or are we holding some back and not letting ourselves realize what comes from being all in?

Reference: Luke 10:27 (New Living Testament)