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 2897: Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia

purposed worKING No Comments

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.”

It’s 2021 and we are now past what felt like the loooongest of years in so many ways. What will this year have in store for us?  That we don’t know…yet.  But, we will and until then we have to stay patient and hopeful for a better year to come.  I had no idea that one word, like “Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia” could be this long. Ironically, or maybe the creator of the word had a great sense of humor, the definition of the word is “having a fear of long words”.  So, maybe we will come up with a name for 2020 that connotes the fear of another year like that happening again. But, I also think that we are going to find much good that has come from our year of adversity and change. New ideas, new services, new products, new processes, lots of new has sprung up and that “new” may never go away.  As we take inventory of what has been new and positive from 2020, what is that we should hang onto for now and for the future?

It must have felt like “forever” for the Israelites and the Jewish people as they waited for the Messiah. God was telling them that He was coming, but they waited and then they waited some more.  Generations passed and with each new person coming into adulthood and wondering if they were the generation who would see the Messiah, their hope that it would happen might have diminished a little with each hard and passing year.  But, God told them that a new covenant was to be made and had they trusted on that, they would have through their faith not been disappointed, but hopeful for the future, even if they wouldn’t actually see it themselves.  It is the same with us as we await the return of the Lord.  We may not see it…but we might…and we just as likely could end up in some other very long years, but we know that God delivers on His promises and regardless of when, we can be assured that He will deliver on His promises.  He always does.

Reference:  Jeremiah 31:31 (New Living Translation)