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 598: Patient Endurance

purposed worKING 2 Comments

It is a great thing to be able to handle the worst that life brings on us. I see people do this and am amazed at how they get through it, bounce back and return to a sense of normalcy. I am not only talking about those life and death events, I am talking about those instances where everything seemed normal and on track and then in the blink of an eye, a job is lost, a deal falters, a relationship gets destroyed, a financial decision backfires, a market dissipates, a colleague fails, we fail, we fall or we just make a mistake that can’t be fixed. What we know is that all of what we expect to be there tomorrow for us is terribly fragile and temporal. We expect it all to last forever but we know that it doesn’t really. I got a note from a friend who used to work for me a long time ago. He was asked to “early retire” last week from the company that he had worked for for over 25 years. While he never expected it to happen to him, it did. He now has to bounce back and start anew and do so with the attitude and energy that can get him reemployed. What started out like any other work day, ended with decades of his work life being radically changed. The same can happen or has happened to all of us. All of the above and worse can happen. But, it is not just enough to endure. While that is great and in itself creates an awesome example for others to see and follow, we are called on to be more in control. Paul says this to us, “In everything we do try to show that we are true ministers of God. We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind.” Paul calls on us to patiently endure. What I hear is that we are to find a place within ourselves where we can wait on what God has in store before we react. We are to be patient with what is happening to us. This is a great challenge and a great call to action. If we can find that we can wait on God in the worst of times, then we will have Him with us in all times. It may be that you are facing your own calamity or test of endurance. See if you can’t reverse the order and find your patience in waiting on Him first and then let Him be there with you for the enduring long run.

Reference: 2 Corinthians 6:4 (New Living Testament)