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 2867: Wondering Around

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“However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.“

The definition of the word wonder is this:  “a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.”  To be a person filled with wonder means we have to be open to being surprised, appreciative of the unknown and curious about what we don’t know, but can learn.  Having the trait of wonder is far too often overlooked when we assess someone for a new job in our companies.  We can tend to over default to what someone knows, rather than what they might discover.  We care more about their steady reactions to known situations than the adaptation to the circumstances that can can shape the outcome of the unknown moment.  We Look for those who have been there and done it before more so than those carry an enthusiasm and openness to going where we haven’t been.  Wonder is too often reserved for the description of children rather that adults.  But, without wonder we wouldn’t have had Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney, Steve Jobs, or even Elon Musk. It’s maybe a great time for another moment of assessment to ask, who around us has the gift of wondering around?

Peter stood over the empty grave.  In an instant his mind must have gone so many places.  But, the Bible tells us that as he traveled away from the tomb to home, he was left wondering.  It would mean that he had the feeling of surprise of the unexplained.,  But, Peter also was processing a lot of information as he began to reflect and remember what Jesus had told he and the other Disciples.  Could it also be that Peter walked home in wonder, which was filled with admiration of being one of the first to be exposed to what couldn’t be explained in another way than by having witnessed a miracle?  Later we know that Jesus appeared in physical form to Peter and others and we are told that again they were filled with “wonder”.  As God’s children, we are built to be filled with wonder at what He has created and done for us.  When we stuff wonder away because we think that being grown up doesn’t allow such a thing, then we might be denying ourselves the gift that God gave us at the beginning, in a perfect garden, when He was happy and thought it so good that we just “wondered around”.

Reference: Luke 24:12 (New Living Translation)