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 442: Learn To Throw A Boomerang

When I was a kid I was fascinated by boomerangs. When I was finally able to buy one I learned how hard it is to throw one and to have the courage it takes to throw it so it comes back to you to be caught. Such is how we work. Work is full of moments that we do things for one way results and we do many things that if they were to come back to us we would be sorry. We have no fear to throw out something to someone else and to throw it hard and fast but if we thought it was going to come back to us, we would likely do as I would do with the boomerang; fall the ground and cover my head. In our work we expect that if we produce a result that favors us that an equal reaction will come back to us and we will get rewarded commensurately with the result. When that doesn’t happen we are frustrated and become upset with our bosses and management and we decide that we are going to pick up our boomerang and go someplace else. The problem with this is that this is a pattern that once into will continue over and over until it becomes a way of thinking and takes over our attitude. The Bible tells us clearly to not be that way. Everything we are taught is to not be one way in the way we live and work but to use the boomerang approach so that what goes around comes around is welcomed and received gladly. Proverbs 11:25 says to us, “The generous prosper and are satisfied, those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed.” What is being said to us is that if we want to prosper, be satisfied and be refreshed, we have to throw out the same and like the boomerang the harder we throw it out there the better it will come back to us and land right at our feet. So pick up the right boomerang today and give it a good strong toss.

Reference: Proverbs 11:25 (New Living Testament)