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 495: How Much Effort? All You Got!

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I learned early on, if you are going to do something, do it well and don’t cut the corners or take shortcuts and don’t above all else, not give it your all. There are few feelings like quitting or stopping when you know down deep inside that you haven’t given it your all. The disappointment that comes afterward when the results align with the effort, and fall short, is impossible to reel back in and becomes something that we have to live with. When we don’t give it our all, we squander an opportunity and we let ourselves and others down. After we do this a few times we start to become conditioned to a less than full effort and that is a very dangerous and slippery slope to stand upon. A friend has a son who has the innate talent to be a very good golfer. He was told throughout college that if he stuck with it, practiced, played and studied the game as if it was his job that he has the potential to turn professional. That is what he is doing. He has given himself a full calendar year to give it his all and at the end of the year if he has not broken through, then he will realign his efforts to another profession. What is most impressive about this is that within that year, there are no compromises and only a fully focused, all out effort. No day can be wasted and every hour that he has prescribed for practice must be maximized. It’s impressive to see. His example makes me stop and evaluate how well I am doing at putting my efforts all out there. Peter tells us something similar when he writes of the gifts that God has given us. In 1 Peter 4:11 as he describes how we are supposed to use our gifts; “…Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belongs to Him forever and ever. Amen.” There is no question, we are to give every bit of ourselves with an all-out effort. When do we do, then God’s glory can be seen and delivered through our efforts. Anything less, and we come up short. Today, there is work on the docket that demands all we got. Call on God for His strength and power and then go all-out and give it all you got and watch for what God does next!

Reference: 1 Peter 4:11 (New Living Testament)