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 477: You Gotta Be Present To Win

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“You gotta be present to win” is one of my friend’s favorite lines in business. What he means by this is that if you want to get the most of anything, then you have to be involved and present (figuratively) to get the most of the activity or the work. Sometimes he uses it literally with those who are not spending enough time on the job or in the office, but then it becomes punitive. Being present means to me, giving of ourselves enough that we set aside our distractions, subordinate our egos and wants, and we focus on the work at hand. That makes good sense to me. Years ago I went through Senn Delaney’s leadership seminars and there was one axiom that stuck with me throughout all the years. It is, “Be Here Now”. Being here now means being present. Set aside the emails, ignore the text messages and phone calls, the distractions outside of work, and focus in on the person or the work in front of you. It was a very valuable lesson for me, and one that I continue to relearn. Being present with others is a very valuable skill and one that is more appreciated and recognized than we imagine. We all should think about being more present and being more here now. Paul gives Timothy a similar word in 2 Timothy 2:6; “Hardworking farmers are the first to enjoy the fruit of their labor”. Think about this and imagine being the farmer who is picking the corn, the tomatoes, the beans or the fruits. Who will get the freshest and ripest of the harvest? The farmer who is present, on the front line, focused and doing his work. The one who’s hands are dirty and in the dirt. I love that verse for it says so much about what God wants us to be in our jobs. He wants us to be present, to be there with and for others if that is what we do, to be focused and to be there in all that we have on the work we have been given. It is then that we can enjoy the fruit of our labor and along the way, bring glory to God through our hard and present work. If today you are questioning why and what it is that you are doing with your working hours, try asking God to give you the presence of mind to be totally present in the job that you have and see if there isn’t fruit in front of you that have previously missed.

Reference: 2 Timothy 2:6 (New Living Testament)