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 2969: 9.5 Hours

purposed worKING No Comments

“Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.”

In the history of recorded music, and I know this is debatable but I’m putting it out there, I believe there have been three primary artists who totally upended what we listened to and influenced significant direction change in what music was created.  Those three artists were: Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and The Beatles.  Each didn’t just bend or modify a genre or direction, they created something that was their own that captured the world’s attention.  Sinatra and Presley had long careers that spanned decades and were very prolific.  What many don’t realize though that The Beatles were just the opposite.  Their career together as a group was only eight years and in total the recorded time of their music was 9.5 hours.  Imagine that?  Less than 10 hours of music that changed the trajectory of music forever.  We get choices in our businesses and careers.  We can seek quantity and volume or we can seek quality and impact.  They are not mutually exclusive as we can see by the fact that Sinatra and Presley had both, but for most of us it is a choice that matters.  Which are we choosing?

As I wrote yesterday, Jesus had the greatest impact on the world and humanity with three short years and a small record of all He did.  And when you study His teachings and those of the rest of the Disciples and Apostles, there aren’t any commendations for those who made big splashes.  Instead, the message is about one soul, one sheep, one church, caring and loving and shepherding them to Christ.  In the work we do, with the talents we have been given, with really a short time of life in history, what are we doing, one by one to make the impact that God wants from our lives?

Reference: John 21:25 (New Living Translation)