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 8: Your Last Day

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There’s the old saying, “no one ever says on their deathbed, oh, I wish I had one more day in the office”. That statement is filled with much truth, but it doesn’t help us when we know that we have many priorities stacked up in front of us and because of deadlines, market needs, demands of bosses, etc., we feel we have too little time so we prioritize work above family, friends and sometimes God. It is not surprising that when this happens we end up in not such a happy place. We are given a good word in Ecclesiastes that helps puts our work in context. No where in the Bible will you see that we are to toil at our second best or not give it our all in anything we do. Verse 10 of Ecclesiastes Chapter 9 says, “Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom”. This verse says to me that we are to approach our work with a passion and joy as if it is a gift we are given that upon death will be taken away from us. The time we have on earth to work we are to do our best and make the most of our efforts. Notice that the verse does not say, “do it better”, or “put your work above all else”. It just says, “do well”. The verse could also be interpreted that we are to ignore work, knowledge, planning and wisdom of none it will be there for us at death. I could follow this interpretation if I weren’t faced with Monday mornings each week. Work is a reality and what we must do is not ignore the fact that it is a vital and important part of our lives, but instead ensure that we do well in our work so that we honor what we have been given and make the most of the days we have here on this earth. When we do this, we also honor God. When we honor God, our priorities are in the right place. So today when you struggle across competing priorities and when it looks like work is winning out again, stop for a moment and try to put it all in context and think through how “well” you are doing with within your work? If you can say, “Yes, I am doing well” then you have done what is asked of you and the priorities and demands just might take care of themselves.

Reference: Ecclesiastes 9:10 (New Living Testament)