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 296: Working On A Slant

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I listened as it was described to me the pains and troubles of working on a slant. The context was working outside on the land where the ground is on a hill, on a slant. The same work that can be done on the flat and level can take 30-40% more time when you have to work on a slant and even the best of the best, the strongest of the strong, and the most able, have to call it quits early when they are working on a slant. As I listened to this, I could feel my hamstrings, my back, and my neck saying to me, “don’t you even try it”. For me, manual labor is not easy anyway, and like most of us, I know the feeling of being bent over the garden and yard for a day and how I feel the next day. Thinking about doing that on an incline where it is not only strength but also balance and the use of other muscles to keep upright and stable, makes me sore just to think about it. As I listened, I also heard a metaphor for how we all are sometimes asked to work. We may not have to go and clear a hill of weeds or brush, but we many times are asked to work on a slant within our own jobs where we are pushed, strained, and stretched to a point we don’t think we can go on. The slant may be an unfair circumstance, or lack of resources, or lack of direction, or not enough time, or not cooperative co-workers. The slant can come at us in many different ways. And regardless, we mush react, act and overcome. But after too many hours on the slant we are just like the physical laborer, we have to call it quits because we don’t have any more in the tank to give. As believers, we have someone to call on to help us level the land in front of us. God gives us His promises that He will be a rock, a foundation, a steady place in the midst of the not level and shaky. We read in Psalm 62:2; “He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will never be shaken.” God has built His and our fortress on His rock, which is as level and workable as any we could ever imagine. When we get ourselves caught on the slant and can’t keep our balance or are losing our strength to lean up and into the hill, crawl up on His rock to find that balance and steady footing you need. Today, you may feel like you are working on a slant, and maybe have been for a long time. Know this, God does not want you to fall down any incline. He just wants you to stop looking for the level ground on your own. As soon as you allow him to give you your footing, the field will level and you will find yourself on steady ground once again. Because of this promise, don’t ever let the slant get you down!

Reference: Psalm 62:2 (New Living Testament)