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 385: Everybody’s Working For The Weekend

purposed worKING No Comments

Do you know the tune that goes with, “Everybody’s working for the weekend?” It’s an old Loverboy song from the 1980’s and it can be heard on the radio on Fridays and hummed under the breath of people as they head out the door on Friday afternoon. This time of the year when the blossoms are on the trees and the flowers are starting to push up and bloom, spring fever starts to set in and we look more forward to the weekends. So much to do, so little time, and those two days become precious and a bit of a weekly obsession. Conversations around the break room turn to “what are you up to this weekend?” and you can hear the priorities of soccer and baseball games, yard work, travel, friend time, etc. After a hard week’s work sometimes there is nothing better than just being home with family and shutting off the email, phone calls, and text messages and just finding time to read, catch up on DVR’d TV, movies or simply just vegg out. The weekend is also the time given to us to recenter on Sunday with our time in church. However it is done, we look to the weekends to recharge and regroup for the week ahead. I continually marvel at how those who came before us, particularly in the Old Testament would with all their hardships, challenges and obstacles, consistently look to the Lord for their respite. Some will say that it was easier then to focus and be close to the Lord as they didn’t have the distractions of 500 cable channels or a new ipad to play with. But, I don’t think that any generation had it easier than we do today to focus on the Lord, if we choose. While we rest in the weekends, let’s remember that while the Sabbath was a day of doing nothing for them, the other six days were about hunting, gathering, fighting, protecting and surviving in the elements and using every hour of sunlight for existence. There was no “weekend” other than one day when they were required to not lift a hand and focus on God. We would do well to learn from the lessons of those who came before us. Not the law of the Sabbath, but the focus on God for their rest and renewal. King David says in Psalm 27:4; “The one thing I ask of the Lord-the thing I seek most-is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” Imagine if we could honestly say the same how our perspective on work and living would change? While we may still be working for the weekend, our overall focus and priorities would be so set that each and every day would be like a weekend of rest with our Lord. This weekend, take at least the time in church to reflect on the true meaning of our purpose at work and let God fill you with the energy and spirit to bring glory to Him in all that you do.

Reference: Psalm 27:4 (New Living Testament)