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 3K36: Coin Toss

“Flipping a coin can end arguments; it settles disputes between powerful opponents.”

When everything is locked up and in stalemate and we are “that close” to an agreement, then it is not crazy to call for a coin toss and move on.  But, why is that so hard?  Maybe because it means someone wins and someone loses and the person who loses won’t be able to accept that the decision was made in such a way.  What is it that keeps that from happening?  Maybe it is just plain old ego and loss of power that gets in the way.  No decision is perfect, but sometimes they are good enough!

Maybe when Solomon tells us that flipping a coin can settle an issue he was telling us even more.  Notice the last part of the verse, “between powerful opponents”.  Is he not telling us that we are not to take our power so seriously that we must always win?  Is he telling us that if we continue to use our power to argue and hold onto disputes it is an abuse of power?  If we are being taught that we should be able to subordinate our power down to the fate of a coin toss, then yes, we are being taught that we are not to put too much stock in how powerful we are or want to become.

Reference:  Proverbs 18:18 (New Living Translation)