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 2801: You Pick Farms

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“And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”

When I was growing up in Southern Indiana, sometime in the summer months we would go to the local produce farm and pick strawberries.  It was fun and we usually ate more than we should have, but it must have all worked out well for the farm as after all we were the labor for them and they turned what is back-breaking work into the marketing of us having the “privilege” to pick our own fruit. It is a brilliant strategy employed by other industries too; we pump our own gas to have the convenience of not waiting for someone to come out and service us and to have longer hours of the day to do so, we bank with an ATM for 24-hour access and not have to stand in a line inside. There are plenty of other industries that are ripe to get us to do the picking, but it takes some trust, some technology and the willingness to give up on what once worked before but today is more of a hassle than it is worth for the customer.  Really, don’t you wish you could just shop and walk out the door without every having to stop and check out?  Yes, Amazon is getting ready to license this technology to all retailers.

Our church in SF has a year-long theme of “Sow…Water…Reap”.  We have these great armbands that we were given, that I wear 24-7 as a constant reminder that I should be sowing today…watering…and recognizing that I am reaping what someone else might have sown long ago with their prayers and works. In fact, maybe today, the blessings and gifts that I have been given is really me just getting to pick the fruits of someone else’s labors. Let’s think about that today before we get too frustrated or anxious that we aren’t getting all that we want right at this moment.

Reference: James 3:18 (New Living Translation)