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 3K58: Feeling Rotary

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“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Last week I got pretty sick.  From all of the symptoms it was lining itself up to be a breakthrough COVID case (I’m Double Vaxxed and Boostered) and I must admit, it was scary.  Fortunately, after two negative COVID tests and a slug of antibiotics, the Upper Respiratory Infection (URI) I had, after a long week, started to subside.  I was thankful it only ended up being the URI.  As I laid in the bed day after day, not really able to do anything other than think and pray, I thought of a slang term I’d heard when a character on TV was slow on the uptake; “Feeling Rotary”.  I realized that it was a good descriptor of how I felt when I couldn’t concentrate enough to even read, didn’t feel like talking and wanted to do nothing but let the time pass.  We get so used to “Feeling Digital” when information flows incessantly and fast and we are demanded to be up to date, and one step ahead at all times.  So, when we are forced to “Feeling Rotary” the impact can be strongly felt.  We all, at one time or another, are forced to slow it down and take it easy.  And, that happens not just because of an illness.  When it happens to us, maybe rather than fight it we can choose to look at “Feeling Rotary” as a short term gift of respite that won’t last for long.

We all carry heavy burdens.  So many people are good at not showing the load that they have.  Others, we can see it daily and we reach and help out the best we can.  And, then we try at the same time to balance it with our own load that with one misstep or gust of wind from the wrong direction, will knock us off our feet.  God doesn’t want that to happen to us so He asks that we bring those burdens to Him to carry them for us.  These next few weeks can feel like some of the heaviest of the year as we prepare for the Holidays and wrapping up a work year.  Let’s not miss all that the Christmas season can be by trying to overdo it or carry it all on our own.  Let’s let God help us through so that the end of this year we don’t end up “Feeling Rotary”.

Reference:  Matthew 11:28 (New Living Translation)