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 522: No, It Is Not Sweet

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I have noticed over the years that the only place where people are more insistent on getting even and getting revenge than they are on the playground as kids, is at work. Maybe it is because we can so easily take out our frustrations and anger with someone else at work without too many repercussions, or maybe it is because work memories are only as long as the current boss and management team, so people feel more courageous to get even with others, hold grudges and do whatever it takes to put themselves in front of others, especially those that they feel have wronged them in some way. I have spent way too many hours in my career hearing about how someone feels mistreated, taken advantage of, spoken down to, etc. and just about the moment that I could start to feel a little empathy for them, they switch into spewing out their plans on how they will get back at someone or get even against them. Way too much energy is spent on this pervasive attitude versus reconciling, forgiving, forgetting and moving on. It is easy for any one of us to get caught up in this and lose perspective. Paul tells us that this is not becoming of the type of person that God wants us to be. He says in Romans 12:17; “Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.” Notice that he says, “anyone”. This means our competitors and our enemies too. Today, think about those who have offended you and ask yourself if you are still holding a grudge or worse yet, plotting and planning a revenge. In the eyes of God, revenge is anything but sweet.

Reference: Romans 12:17 (New Living Testament)