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 2834: What We’re Used To…

“Then Saul gave David his own armor—a bronze helmet and a coat of mail.  David put it on, strapped the sword over it, and took a step or two to see what it was like, for he had never worn such things before. “I can’t go in these,” he protested to Saul. “I’m not used to them.” So David took them off again.”

Anyone who has ever done any public speaking knows the feeling of concern about whether or not their presentation will be shown correctly, or will the audio-visual work with our laptops, etc.?  It’s a bit like going into anything without your own “stuff”.  It just makes everything harder and it takes our confidence down.  I wonder if this isn’t going to be a part of how we feel when we go back into a new office protocol or into any place where it sill be all new and demand us to go outside of our expected patterns.  And it’s not only physical “stuff”, it’s also in how we have to adapt to the changes of how we respect and treat one another.  None of this is easy, but it’s part of how we are going to have to get ready going forward.

Little David slayed Goliath with none of the armor and battle gear he was given.  He beat the giant with what he knew and what he had already.  So often we can feel like we aren’t ready or prepared for the challenges in front of us, but if we trust in God, look around at what we already have, we might find we are better prepared than we think. God never made it that we had to have what others have, but rather that with Him, we can overcome with just what He gives us.

Reference: 1 Samuel 17:38-39 (New Living Translation)