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 2850: Distancing

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“Though the Lord is great, He cares for the humble, but He keeps His distance from the proud.”

Roll back to February and we had never heard of the term, “Social Distancing”.  A few months later, it is a constant thought as we make decisions of where and whom we will be with.  Yet, we have always used the word “distancing” as part of how we manage our lives.  We “distance” ourselves from those who might cause us trouble or are shady in their reputations.  Companies distance themselves from media platforms and outlets where they feel their brands don’t align with the opinions or content that is being distributed.  So, we we are used to distancing others, but no one likes being on the other end of the stick and the ones being distanced.  The act of distancing is tricky and we should be aware that there are real feelings on all side of the action.  Social distancing should not be of controversy, but even that has human emotions entwined within the decisions made.  We made one of those decisions yesterday when we turned down an offer to join an annual large gathering of family and and neighborhood friends that in any other year, we were first in line to say yes.  It’s hard right now, but the need for distance is legitimate and I hope when distancing, done for the right reasons, that this kind of distance still allows the heart to grow fonder.

Even God has His boundaries.  He makes it clear in the Psalm above  that while He is always available and with us, that He will distance Himself from us when we become prideful.  If we feel that God is not near, (I feel that way many times), then the first place we should check ourselves is our pride.  That’s the likely suspect and an easy fix.  Take one dose of humility and God will see us up close and personal with no distancing required.

Reference:  Psalm 138:6 (NLT)