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 2999: Longing For Yesterday

“Don’t long for “the good old days.” This is not wise.”

This past week I have noticed a pattern in the conversations I have had with Founders, CEOs, Executive Directors and those who lead other organizations.  There was a shift.  It was subtle, but it kept coming up.  It goes something like this: “I don’t know where the future is headed but I’d be more than okay if we could return to the way things were before.”  That’s not all that bad, but when there is a weariness (which I was also sensing) about trying to figure out, create and maneuver the future, what can creep in is the romanticizing of what we knew and the things we were comfortable with from the past. We have to be careful about this as the companies and organizations that will thrive on the backside of this time will be the ones who took the best from the past, threw out the rest and created a new future for themselves.  It’s a daunting challenge for sure.  But, it will be worth it.

Our faith and work journey will always be hard and we need to encourage each other to stand courageous and strong.  There will be times in our lives that we will long for easier or more comfortable times and yes, we should rest in those times, but God wants us to push forward into the areas of our lives that we can be even more of a witness for Him. If we are going about it as He wants us to do for Him, the best days are the days that are ahead of us, not the days of the past.

Reference:  Ecclesiastes 7:10 (New Living Translation)