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 2963: Empty Nets

“Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.”

I was on a call yesterday with a small videogaming startup who have built an interesting game but don’t have any players…yet.  The way they were talking about where they are right now reminded me of going fishing.  We can have the best rod and reel, have the perfect bait and be in our favorite spot and still the fish don’t bite.  That is, until they do.  Sometimes it is patience.  Sometimes it will be things out of our control.  Sometimes it will be that we need to change up a few things.  But, if we are prepared, if we have done our best and if we have given it our all, we will learn if the fish are there or not.  If they are, we are good.  If they are not, then we have learned it is time to rethink what we are doing.

In the final Chapter of John, Jesus appears to His Disciples one last time.  This time He meets them in a moment of their work (fishing) when it appears that they are not getting anything done.  He finds them in a moment of futility. But, then Jesus appears to them and their work is fulfilled.  This is what God does.  He fulfills us when we most need it and it looks impossible to go any further.  And He says to us, “Throw out your net”….one more time.  Really, how great is that?
Reference:  John 21: 6 (New Living Translation)