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 520: The Arc Of A Day

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When we rise in the morning and ready ourselves for work we shift our mind and thinking to going away from our home and loved ones to another place where we may not be as happy or as fulfilled, but know that we have a job to do so we go do it. We give it our best. We forget to call home. We lose track of the hours and along the day we find ourselves more engrossed in our work than the rest of our lives. As the day winds down and the people around us begin to log-off and pack up we do the same and as we commute back to where we spend most of our time we transition back into the other person who now needs to provide time and attention to those who are also in our lives but don’t share the 8-16 hours a day that we do when we are working. We refresh in our hours away from the office. We recharge in the love and companionship of family and friends. And then we start it all over the next day. We live the arc of a day, each and every working day that we have. What is amazing about the human spirit and ability is that we find both power and energy in our time away from work and within our work. Together, if balanced, we are enthusiastic and fit to tackle the challenges within and outside of work. But, that arc must be managed and balanced for it all to work correctly. When out of synch then we know how we feel; burned out, exhausted, overwhelmed, etc. I was struck by a verse this past week in John Chapter 17. Jesus is near the end of his earthly life and He prays to His Father; “Father, bring me into the glory we shared before the world began.” I read this verse early in the morning before a day that was destined to be out of balance. There would be no time to rest or no time to communicate outside of the work that needed to be done. It was going to be a day where I was not looking forward to the challenges ahead. And then I read this verse and God spoke to me and said, “take a look at what Jesus/I did and then tell me that you can’t get through any day ahead of you”. I reread the verse and saw Jesus walking out the door to go do His work and near the end of His day looking forward to returning home and to the time before the work began. I heard Him managing the arc of His day! God knows our arc as He created it for us. Allow Him today to carry us from home to work to home and to make the most of the arc of this day!

Reference: John 17:5 (New Living Testament)