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 274: Too Busy

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While I am on vacation, I have asked friends, and encouragers of Purposed worKING to contribute. Today’s post comes from Jason Illian who is a published author and technology executive who has a passion for helping people live more purpose-driven lives.

Most of us are just too busy. We are too busy working on our jobs, working on our bodies, and working on our relationships. We are too busy trying to “get ahead” and “get on top”. But ahead of whom and on top of what? Instead of stopping and talking with God, we often speed along until all the wheels come flying off. Like the rest of the briefcase-packing mammals, we wrestle with traffic and kids, but very rarely do we ever wrestle with God. We are just too busy.

But God will wrestle with you whether you are ready or not. We often misread the story of Jacob wrestling with God, assuming that Jacob was on the offensive. But if you look closely, the scripture notes, “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.” (Genesis 32:24) God jumped Jacob, not the other way around. God was on the offensive. And He did it at a time when Jacob should have been getting some sleep and preparing to meet Esau. He did it when Jacob’s life was exceptionally busy.

God will speak to you at the most inconvenient times. He does it so that you will learn to tell the difference between what is urgent and what is important. Most of our current busyness is matter of urgency, not importance, and that is why we are drained at the end of the day. We have forgotten that God shouldn’t be part of our day; our day should be part of God.

When you woke up this morning, what were your first thoughts? Did you prayerfully consider what God had on His heart, or did you gravitate to the 9 a.m. meeting, the international conference call, or the sales presentation with the executive team? Too often our thoughts are on the latter and it is a reflection of where our hearts are. Disconnected from God.

Most of us are just too busy. We have our arms so full of good things that we can’t reach out and grab God things. We shouldn’t neglect our daily responsibilities as parents and providers, but our meaning and purpose has to be rooted in Christ-centeredness. If you don’t wrestle with God, He will wrestle with you.

We often hear the advice that we have to learn to say “No” to certain things. If you can learn to say “No” to the urgent things and “Yes” to the important things, you’ll be surprised at how quickly your life becomes aligned with God’s will. There are many ways to fill a life, but only one way to fulfill it.

Reference: Genesis 32:24