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 23: God’s Seniority

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Many businesses use seniority to determine rankings, privilege, pay, promotion, etc. Others use performance along with tenure. God pretty much throws the whole thing out the window and tells us that we are not to even worry about being important, and in fact the least of us here will the most important in heaven and vice versa. And you may wonder, how are we to reconcile that with the way that our work lives are structured where the only way to get more is to get ahead and that means getting ahead of others? You might be embroiled in this right now. You want that promotion and you are willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Even if that means that you don’t play nice in the sandbox with your fellow co-workers. You may not be malicious about it, but sharing a little less information with the competing person or positioning yourself to catch the recognition when it is doled out; well that’s all part of the game, yes? Not according to Him. Jesus says in Matthew 19:30; “But many who seem to be important now will be the least important then, and those who are considered least here will be the greatest then”. What is Jesus saying to us? He’s telling us that when we are worried about progressing and becoming more important here (and taking all of the actions to get to that level of importance) that we are playing for the wrong prize and in fact, we are playing the wrong game all together. God doesn’t really care about whether or not we are a Manager or a Vice President (after having been a CEO, I think he really doesn’t care about that for sure…and that it’s one of the humorous things in life that we can strive to have the top position that is the hardest and most life-sucking position you can imagine) what He cares about is the type of person we are and how we are living and representing Him to others. Sure, God wants us to achieve and be blessed. The Bible is full of His promises to make our lives abundant but He doesn’t want us sacrificing our eternal standing to gain en earthly and temporal position. And really for sure, He doesn’t want us to let the lack of progress here get us down and stop the good works that can happen in us, regardless of our standing or position. So, if not today, sometime soon, you will be faced with “what do I have to do to get ahead here?” Think hard on the question and don’t let the answer be anything that will cause you to lose your humility and grace with which you work. If you do, then you are potentially losing out on God’s seniority ranking and the biggest promotions of your eternity.

Reference: Matthew 19:30 (New Living Testament)