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 2995: Fiscal Year

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“Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless—like chasing the wind.”

Most corporations run on a calendar year fiscal cycle.  Most non-profits run on a July 1 Fiscal Year.  46 U.S. States start their fiscal year on July 1. The U.S. Government’s fiscal year begins October 1.  And all the while, our personal fiscal cycle runs from year to year with many not thinking about when is the end or the beginning.  What a fiscal year does for us is to have a start point and end point for budgeting and planning.  We need that discipline.  So, whether we are half-way through, just starting, or a quarter away from closing the year, it’s important that we focus on what we have before us and not lose sight that within our budgets there is much that can be done and make the most of it, until next year.

When we think about our standing (financial, career, education, relationships) in comparison to others we will inevitably drift to a comparison of what we have versus what we don’t.  Imagine we could live up to the verse above from Ecclesiastes; enjoying what we have versus desiring what we don’t.  It’s hard to think about nipping desire in the bud when there is so much to be had, but that is what we are to do.  What are we desiring today we don’t have instead of just enjoying all that we have been given?

Reference:  Ecclesiastes 6:9 (New Living Translation)

Reminder:  As you might be following along, we are approaching the 3000th post of Purposed worKING.  Many of you have been with me since the beginning in October 2008.  Others might have just recently subscribed.  Either way, I’d like to thank you for reading along daily with a special 1/2 hour Thank You Zoom Call on Wednesday July 14th at 1:00pm PDT/4:00PM EDT.  If you are interested in attending, email me at rusty@rueff.com and I will send you the link.