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 2889: In Through The Out Door

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“…They must never leave by the same gateway they came in, but must always use the opposite gateway.”

I did my best last week to try and explain my career path to a soon to be college graduate.  As I was listening to myself speak I realized (not really for the first time but good to be reminded) that my career has been built on trying to always walk through a new door and not return to one where I have come through before.  There is something about being able to close doors behind you and consider them shut tight with no reason to return.  I’ve watched a few people leave a company and then return.  Sometimes, it works out perfectly as they feel as though they have found their way back home. But for many, what was once a place they knew, has grown to something else and they never quite fit in again.  It is not easy to decipher which doors to walk through. When in doubt look to the one that best moves us forward and maybe to something that we have never imagined doing before.

Maybe this is what God is also telling us in Ezekiel as He gives the instructions for how the Temple gateways were to be traversed.  The prince was allowed to go in and out of the same gateway, but all the rest of the people were to enter in one gateway and leave through the opposite gateway.  Could it be that God was telling them that as they passed through the Temple while in His presence that they were to be made anew and to not try and return to what they were before?  I’m not sure, but it hit me as such as I read this verse and reminded me that today is a great day to move forward from one gateway to the one ahead, in all that we do.

Reference:  Ezekiel 46:9 (New Living Translation)