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 319: Waiting Times

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Not long ago I was heading into a meeting but the person I was meeting with was not yet out of his other meeting so his assistant, said; “You can wait here in this room”. She offered me coffee or water and then shut the door to leave me waiting. Any one who works and goes to meetings has had the experience of having to wait. Sometimes formal like this, like a doctor’s office. Other times, it is standing or sitting in a hallway, just waiting either by ourselves or with others. On this one instance, I did not have my usual waiting helpers. I usually carry my laptop, my Kindle, a newspaper or my phone with my email on it. I did have my phone with email on it but with no data coverage inside of the office, it was not of any help. So instead of scrounging around for something to read, I decided to just take the time and try and relish some silence and peace, both which are hard to find these days. If I could have anticipated or heard when the door would open, I would have just closed my eyes for a few minutes. Instead, I took the time to be silent and see what I could hear inside myself. I would like to say that I heard the voice of God, but I didn’t. I just rested and waited. By the time I was asked to get up and move to another office for the meeting, I was in a different state of mind than I was when I entered the office. While I was not really stressed on this day, I was even that much more at peace by having a few minutes of waiting time. It was rejuvenating and restorative. I am going to try and remember this day and look forward to waiting times as times that are good for me. God also tells us that waiting time is good for us. In Psalm 37:7, we are encouraged to wait; “Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act.” Sometimes I suspect that we are given waiting time, just so we can learn to be still and practice this as we wait on Him. Maybe what we are supposed to do with the waiting times (literally and figuratively) that we are given within our work is to turn that time into the dual purpose of finding time of peace and to be still in the presence of God. If faced with waiting times this week, see if you can turn that waiting time into time of even larger productivity and meaning.

Reference: Psalm 37:7 (New Living Testament)