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 380: The Most Precious Resource

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Today I had a meeting with a senior financial person who is in the process of deciding on his next job. He detailed to me the trials and tribulations of what he has gone through over the last few months with people he interviewed with who never got back to him and one situation where he was asked to write a comprehensive business plan and submit it in two days, which he did, only to be told that the position was already filled before his interview. When he checked back with them later he was told that the time spent by the hiring manager was for courtesy. When he inquired about why they asked him to take his own time to create and submit the business when it was for nothing, the responding party did not have a good answer. Needless to say, he was upset. He could have been upset over not getting the job or upset over someone taking his business plan and likely getting ready to use it as their own. But neither of those were really why he was upset. He was most upset because someone else wasted his time. We all have the same amount of time each day. The CEO and the entry-level college student all are given the same amount. When one person wastes the time of someone else, it is really taking from them the most precious resource they have. We all have our time wasted at work. What is really important is how we respond and react to when our time is taken from us. Being ones who want to set the right example and be a model of our purpose being lived out at work, I suggest that each time we are put in the situation where our time is being wasted, that we recalibrate and remember that we are working for God’s purpose and that if we are doing that in all we do, then no moment is ever wasted. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15:58; “…Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” Today, worry less about time that is wasted and think more about why you are doing what you do. If we are always working enthusiastically for God to deliver his Purpose through us with the glory always going to Him, then all the time is useful and each and every moment is counting for something great.

Reference: 1 Corinthians 15:58 (New Living Testament)