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 268: “God, On Line One”

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Over the past year plus now of writing Purposed worKING I have been amazed at the number of people who tell me that this daily companion piece means something to them because the intersection of work and faith is so often ignored. We work and work and work and all of those hours that we spend in the office, in the field, on the sales call, in the car, hunched over our computers, yada, yada, are all hours that God wants to be there with us but we so often check Him at the door or leave Him at church on Sunday morning. Our God is a God of work. He devised work and as we read throughout the Bible each of the great people we learn about also all at one time, had jobs where they had to perform to the highest standards. For most of the years of Jesus’ life, he had a job too. He worked just like all of the other carpenters and he had to learn and perfect a skill to be a part of the world around him. Whenever I come to that point where I wonder if I am doing for God what He wants me to do the work I do and is that enough for for Him, He reminds me that He seeks people out, in our work, when we are doing our daily work, and goes and finds us right there in the middle of the daily routines, when we least expect it. It is clear in the Biblical testaments that Jesus’ disciples weren’t applying for a disciple job when Jesus found them. He found them in their day jobs when they weren’t looking for another job. In Luke 5:27 we read: Later as Jesus left the town, he saw a tax collector name Levi sitting at his tax-collection booth. ‘Come be my disciple!’ Jesus said to him. So Levi got up, left everything, and followed him.” God found Matthew, Levi, on the job, while he was going about his everyday work. While we don’t have Jesus walking up and down the halls today physically calling us out, He is calling us each and everyday on our jobs to follow Him. We all have heard Him at some point in our careers. In the middle of something gnarly we ask ourselves what would God have me do. Or at points of extreme satisfaction or achievement, we are reminded to stop for a moment and give thanks to the Lord for the support and result. At moments of decision of how we should act or what we should say, God puts the right word in our mouth, or at least tells us what we should say. It happens every day to us, if only we would listen. If only we will pick up line one when God calls. Imagine the change of events and course of life of Matthew, John, Peter, Luke, etc., had they been too busy, or too wrapped up with a customer, to not have heard the voice of God the day that they were called. Today, let’s be sure that we don’t miss “God, on line one”, when He comes calling on us!

Reference: Luke 5:27 (New Living Testament)