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 2949: “I Just Go Over My Lines”

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“His disciples didn’t understand at the time that this was a fulfillment of prophecy. But after Jesus entered into his glory, they remembered what had happened and realized that these things had been written about him.”

I was watching online a reading of a play.  At one point the Director asks the actor (the play is about a play) how he interprets one of his lines in the context of the ending of the show.  The actor responds, “I don’t read the whole play, I just go over my lines”.  I laughed out loud because that is a major problem in our work and our lives.  We only go over and focus on our own lines, not taking the time to look at the bigger picture or where the narrative is trying to go.  We all know those people and we tag them as “only out for themselves”, “having their own agenda”, “unwilling to see the bigger picture if they have to make an effort”.  Our own lines are important, but like the theater if a line is delivered, no mater how well, out of context it’s meaning can be lost, or worse yet, misconstrued.

I was reflecting coming out Easter weekend how the Disciples all of a sudden woke up to who Jesus really was after He had been taken from them.  Before the crucifixion Jesus was telling them daily about who He was but they were so caught up in what they knew and what they should do that they kept missing it. It was like they were focusing on their own lines and oblivious of the bigger picture, the context and the narrative.  Now, we can cut them a bit of slack as even today the Parables take some work to get to the foundational meanings, but the point is that Jesus wants us to both know our own lines but also be sure that we are fitting them into His story for the world.

Reference:  John 12:16 (New Living Translation)