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 2904: Simultaneous Landings

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“The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life. I will advise you and watch over you.”

One of the companies I have been working with has been trying to land their next round of funding (a helicopter if you will) at the same time they are being sought for acquisition and trying to land that deal (an airplane if you will). Doing anything at once is hard and many times ill-advised, but things get a lot harder when trying to complete two things that are both really important, impossible to decouple and can potentially change the trajectory of our companies, our careers or our lives. Here’s a little secret.  You aren’t the first to go through something like this and with a little work, you can find someone else who has experienced similar and learn from their mistakes and successes before you have to go through it on your own.  Experienced “pilots” can be really helpful.

For those of us who seek to bring glory to God in our work and lives, it can many times feel like we are trying to balance the goals and objectives of our work with the goals and objectives of our faith commitments.  The best is when those are complementary, the worst, when they collide.  But, for the most part, we are trying to land both at the same time and it’s not easy.  However, as others can help us pilot our way, we also know that the Holy Spirit can control the winds and give us the extra sense and a “touch” to find our way.  Let’s pray today to allow the Holy Spirit to guide the wind in our lives and also provide us with His perfect trajectory to successfully land what is in front of us today.

Reference:  Psalm 32:8 (New Living Translation)