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 170: Balance Sheets

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Every business or organization that has financial statements has a balance sheet. Many people don’t know how to read a balance sheet, even many who work in a company, but it is an extremely important document to understand. It is on the balance sheet that one can understand the true assets and the true liabilities of a company. They must add up to be the same, thus why it is called a balance sheet. When the liabilities exceed the assets within the company then we see bankruptcy of an organization. So, as an investor and as an employee, keeping an eye on the health of the balance sheet is important. In our work lives we each have our own balance sheets that we must manage. We have our personal financial balance sheet and our time and effort balance sheet. However, there are some areas where we should never seek balance but put as much investment as possible and then let the returns be as they may. These areas are in the seeking and deepening of our love and relationship with God and also the love and caring of others. when we are going about our daily work routines we have the opportunity to give and care as much as he we can and then God will take care of whatever return that comes from this. so, in this case we don’t want to worry about a balance sheet, we want to make sure that we are over investing in others even if it seems at the time that it is creating too much liability of time and energy. Jesus tells us this in Luke and while many have taken this to mean just the giving of our money, I believe He was speaking just as much about our love, our talents and our time; “Give and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full-pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.” We live in a crazily busy and hectic time where it seems every minute of our work time needs to be productive and efficient. There is nothing wrong with that. I have always taken this verse to mean for me that if I have my priorities in the right order and I am finding the time to care, love and support others that the extra time will be given back to me somehow. I can’t explain it, but it seems to always work out that way. So, today as you study the company’s balance sheet, look at your own and be sure that there is one place where you don’t have balance. Over do it with the love of God and others and I am sure that the returns will be more than out of balance and that will be a great thing.

Reference: Luke 6:38 (New Living Testament)