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 2823: Paralysis By Analysis

“Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you.”

We enter this weekend with lots of talk of large numbers, statistics, models, projections, etc.  We can’t ignore data, but we shouldn’t also be overwhelmed with numbers that begin to get too big to understand or put our arms around. There was a time when McDonald’s put on every one of their famed arched signs, “Over 1 Billion Sold”.  At the time, it was an understandable number for most people.  A billion of anything was just crazy.  The point was to dazzle us beyond our imaginations.  Paralysis by analysis can do that to us too.  We can get so wrapped up in the data and the big numbers to the point that we don’t know what to do next.  We have to fight against that happening to us by finding the actionable data and then doing what needs to be done to change, improve, or move the numbers we have been given.

No matter the numbers we are reading and hearing, God promises us that He has it all under control.  He’s not saying that we won’t be one of those numbers, but He is saying that we are to not be afraid because He saw this all coming and He has a plan for you and me and whatever His will, His number for us will always be “One”!  Yes, His one that He loves, cares and protects.

Have a great and safe weekend.

Reference: Psalm 91:6-7 (New Living Translation)