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 326: Deal or No Deal?

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As hard as we all work to push the ball forward it only gets that much harder to close a “deal”. The definition of a deal to me is any conclusion of a negotiation or conclusion of a project, or a sale, or a presentation, etc. that takes all we have from us and when we are concluded it feels like we just fall over the finish line. It’s not a particularly desirable position to be in, but it is a part of work that we all experience at some point or another. What is also lost in that period is a sense of perspective. The deal becomes all important and all-consuming to the point that our nerves are on end and we find ourselves unhappy with ourselves and others. The boiling point can also take us to a place where we begin to take out our frustrations and anxiety on others. I speak to many people who in this time of job insecurity and worry about the future feel the need to successfully complete each of their “deals” that they become someone who they don’t like when they look into the mirror. It is understandable when we think through the stress and pressures that we all have on our plates in this difficult time. God gives us reassurances though that can’t be ignored! In Psalm 4:7 David writes of the substance of joy; “You have given me greater joy than those who have abundant harvest of grain and wine”. David was saying that God can give more joy and fulfillment than any deal that could ever be made. As we are faced with the challenges of our work and the expectations of being able to bring the deal home, let us not confuse the satisfaction of working well with true joy and fulfillment. When the deal doesn’t close and it becomes “no deal”, then let us fall back on the promise of God that He will bring so much more joy than we could ever imagine on our own.

Reference: Psalm 4:7 (New Living Testament)