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 525: Decision Day

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Today, all across America, people will be taking time before, after, or during their workday to go to an election poll and cast their vote. This happens in some form each year, but it’s only during the Presidential elections and the two-years after that the country starts paying much attention. On election day we are given the opportunity to exercise our democratic right and we choose our elected officials and take a stand on issues that are up for vote. We stand in a booth, or we fill out a ballot and we make decisions. It’s not unlike work and the jobs that we do where we make decisions all day long. The difference here is that we make a decision that no one really knows that we made unless we tell others when we are asked. Nonetheless we are forced, all at one time as a country, to make a decision. I sometimes wonder if one of the reasons we have such a low voting percentage in our country doesn’t hinge on people’s unwillingness, or fear, of making a decision. If our jobs and workplace are any indication, then this could be a real factor to low voter turnout. I have observed how hard it is for people to make decisions. I know that more people are indecisive than not, because when someone is decisive, they get called out and recognized for being so in a very favorable way. We are to be decisive and know where we stand on things. James tells us just this in his letter; “People like that should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do.” Decisiveness does not come naturally to us. Many of us have to be forced into it before we will make a decision. That is probably why there is an election day process; to be a forcing function for a collective decision. Today, consider if you are being decisive or not? Are there decisions that others are waiting on from you? If so, also consider that today would be a good day to get those decisions behind you. Make them and move on. Election day is a decision day, so let this be a decisive day for all of us.

Reference: James 1:7 (New Living Testament)