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 85: Don’t Look Back

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This past week I got caught in the ice-storms that fell on Kentucky and Indiana. On my first full day there, on an eight-day trip, the big storm came in and took away power and made it nearly impossible to drive and get around. The driveway at my Mother’s place in Southern Indiana was impossible to go up all the way so I found myself driving halfway up, parking and then having to back down when time to leave. The unfamiliar backing down on this eighth of a mile curvy and sloped driveway would be too scary but I grew up there and I know it to the point that I could almost do it without the lights on in the dark. But I did something yesterday I normally would never do. As I was backing down, I turned my head for just a second to look and see where I had come from and then when I returned to where I was heading I had lost direction and I was off to the side and heading for the ditch. Fortunately, I was able to course correct fast enough and miss getting stuck. “Whew, I said to myself”. I was immediately reminded of the times that we are told in the Bible to “not look back” from where we have come as it will mess up the course of where we are going. Jesus says it about our spiritual lives in Luke 9:62, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.” We also learned to not look back as Lot’s wife did and she turned to the pillar of salt. At work is easy to look back over the twists and turns of our career. We think about promotions missed, opportunities turned down, moves not made, etc. I have a dear friend who didn’t make a move years ago to another company when the decision came down to the needs of his family over his career desires. He has had a great career and done well, but to this day he still laments and is haunted over not making the move. It is hard for me, but I just say to him, “get over it. It all worked out okay”. People who look back and fixate on the past or yearn for the “good old days” tend to not have such a straight path to the future. God has great things in store for us in life and in the part of our lives we call work. We can be living our purpose within our work and He wants us to keep our eyes fixed forward (and upward) on Him and the plans he has for us. If you are harboring the misses in your career and job, then like my buddy, “get over it”! It’s time for us to straighten our path and continue to move to the future with purpose and meaning. So today, if you find yourself in that backward looking mood, do a 180 turn and make today a forward looking blessed day.

Reference: Luke 9:62 (New Living Testament)