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 519: Slower Can Be Faster

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It was Napoleon who was quoted as saying, “Dress me slow for I must ride fast today”. Today we have shortened it to, “Slower is Faster”. That’s not always true but there is some sense in the saying. If we are not prepared, or if we don’t think about what we are going to have to do when we get to where we are going, then when we get there, we won’t be ready. On the job it is always hurry up and today its about immediacy. We want our information now without hesitation. We want our messages to be pushed to us continuously regardless of where we are and what we are doing. We want to know that those we work with are in constant communication and always on and ready to reply. So, when someone comes along and asks us to sit down, plan, write it out, rehearse, discuss, think or to go slower, we rebel or at the least we don’t want to get out of our pattern or lose our momentum. But, sometimes we do need to go slower to be faster. But, it’s really hard to do this in today’s world. Just to provide some context, this is really not that new. In the Psalms, David wrote about saying to God; “In the day when I call answer me speedily”. He also prayed; “I am in trouble: hear me speedily”. David was not willing to go slow with God, but instead was just like the rest of us and wanted, in this case, his answers, now. But that is not how God works. He works on us slowly so that one day we can go fast with confidence. Think today about what areas in your life are you asking God to hurry up and work at your speed versus His. Also, take a look around your office and see if there some areas where you could benefit from slowing down to see where slower could be faster for you and those around you.

Reference: Psalm 102:2, 69:17 (New Living Testament)