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 245: Psst…No Traffic Jams This Way

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If you commute to work, which most of us do, then you likely check in on the traffic patterns on your way to work. Seems like most cities from mid-sized to mega metropolises have at least one radio channel and one television station that gives us the traffic reports every eight to ten minutes. Even the Weather Channel now gives traffic updates. I don’t know anyone who likes a traffic jam. And if someone does tell me that they don’t mind traffic because it gives them time to think, listen to music or an audio book, well, I question their thinking, because I know that given the choice, they would prefer clear sailing back and forth to work. And you can almost tell from their body language and attitude who had a bad morning commute. The aversion to traffic can be so bad that we will go well out of our way, sometimes many miles, to not have to sit still and be at the mercy of others in front of us. I find this understandable because I do it too. I make sure that the first radio station I tune to when I get in my car is KCBS with weather and traffic every ten minutes on the eights. I find all of this curious though, that we will go to great lengths to save time on our commutes but once we are at work, we miss the opportunity to travel the one mile that never has any traffic jams…that being the extra mile. If you want to get more done than you ever imagined, then just follow what can be learned in Matthew 5:41. When we decide to do more than what is asked of us and then we do so, it is likely that we won’t bump into too many others who are there with us. And, we know from experience that we are given more, the more we do and the more we do beyond the expectations put in front of us. Have you gone the extra mile lately? Have you traveled that way to see that there are no traffic jams and very little traffic? Today would be a good day to go out for a test drive and check it out. Remember, others are watching the example by which we live and work. If we choose to take the extra mile, others will follow. That doesn’t mean that you will be creating traffic for yourself, it is just creating good company for everyone!

Reference: Matthew 5:41 (New Living Testament)