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 432: Stepping Forward

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Yesterday, we looked at the importance of taking a stand when called upon to present a point of view. Today, let’s look at what we can do to be known as people who are not afraid to step forward when called upon. We all have sat in meetings where the boss says, “Who would like to take this on?” or “Anyone want to look into this?” When the room goes silent and everyone picks up their Blackberrys you know that no one is going to step forward. And then someone does and then in their minds the rest of the people are saying to themselves, “should I have done that?” The boss is now happy and the person who volunteered now has an opportunity in front of him/her. What holds us back from being one who will step forward? Sometimes it is just that we don’t want the extra work but many times it is because we are concerned that we won’t succeed or we have a failure in our history that holds us back from trying again. We need to let the past go and allow the future to be in control of us. If Peter would have crawled in a cave after he denied Christ at the foot of the cross, then he never would have lived up to his and God’s potential for him. Peter went on to be a leader and one who stepped forward. We read in Acts 2:14; “Then Peter stepped forward with the eleven other apostles…”. Peter was a leader and he showed it by his continued stepping forward. Today, think through where you could step forward if you chose. Ask yourself what is holding you back? If it is some fear of what happened in the past, then course correct today by charting a new course…a course of stepping forward.

Reference: Acts 2:14 (New Living Testament)