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 253: Sacrifices

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Work is full of sacrifices. I know that in my career I have used this line so many times, I couldn’t count; “This is one of those instances where we are just going to have to make some sacrifices”. This can apply to how far we go in negotiations on a deal, how we work with someone else on the team, how we expend our resources, or maybe even how we expend our own time and energy. The irony is that within our jobs proper we really aren’t making any true sacrifices. The better terms are probably concessions or compromises. I have always felt that sacrifice is an overused and misunderstood term. Just look at the first four dictionary definitions: “1.the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage, 2. the person, animal, or thing so offered. 3. the surrender or destruction of something prized or desirable for the sake of something considered as having a higher or more pressing claim. 4. the thing so surrendered or devoted.” If you really offer up something at work like those definitions then you have made a sacrifice. Our jobs typically don’t ask us often to take it to those extremes. However, a part of work does ask us to make that type of sacrifice when we look at what we give up outside of work for the time and energy we devote to our jobs. We do, so many times, sacrifice our loved ones to our work. We make them a distant priority and before long we look back on the months and years and wonder where they went. Our families wonder the same thing. We also sacrifice, too many times, our time with God and our walk with Him when we don’t take Him to work with us and we put Him second or further down the priority list. When we surrender our full attention to our work then we have, in essence, sacrificed ourselves to our jobs, leaving behind God and our loved ones. This sounds bleak and dark and it is when we don’t keep a light shined on ourselves. Today, think about how you are spending your energy, time and your being. Are you putting everything you have into your job and not leaving anything left over to spend on God, your family and those who need you? If you are answering yes, and we all do at some point in our careers, then remind yourself that there was someone else who made an ultimate sacrifice for us. We read in John 10:11; “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.” Let us use this verse to remind ourselves that our shepherd has already made His sacrifice for us and that we now need to not turn our back on that sacrifice, but instead follow our shepherd first and allow Him to lead our way. Do that and we will find that any sacrifices we are asked to make are only the right ones.

Reference: John 10:11 (New Living Testament)