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 2816: Even If…

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“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps.”

How wonderful it would be in our businesses if when faced with challenges and opportunities we could know that “even if” things don’t work out, or take longer than expected, or circumstances get in the way, that the best will be there waiting for us at the other end of the tunnel.  Yes, that would be wildly wonderful, but we can’t have that assurance.  Here in the Bay Area, we received notice that the bakery and lunch chain, “Specialties”, will not be reopening their locations (over 50 of them in CA/Southwest). The pandemic brought them down. For me, they were part of the expansion in the Bay Area that occurred from the Internet creation and forward.  They boomed as an office catering company for lunches and meetings.  And now, they are gone. There was no “even if” for them.  And, they won’t be the last.  Think about those Tech Bus services we have watched grow over the last decade.  We can never know for sure what will  happen next, but in business we can be sure that what we plan won’t always go the way we expect and “even it” is not guaranteed.

Notice that I wrote above, “in our businesses” and didn’t say the same about our lives.  For us as believers, there is that amazing and wonderful, “Even If” that God promises us.  We just have to believe, surrender and allow God to direct us through the challenges, losses and uncertainties.  It’s a great reminder today!

Thanks to Steve C, loyal PwK reader (from China most of the last few years) who reminded me of this by passing along the Mercy Me song, “Even If”.  Enjoy it here and thanks Steve!

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Reference: 1 Peter 2:21 (New Living Translation)