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 2784: Fault Lines

“Jesus knew their thoughts and replied, “Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed.”

George Orwell told us, “War is peace”.  That means a common enemy can align us to a mission and everyone will come together to win.  But, common enemies are not always evident and it is good leaders who can boil down the threats to the one enemy and the effective actions can be taken against it. What is too easy to ,and we see it right now, is to not stay focused on the one driving enemy letting too many other competing enemies sneak in and before long we are as fractured and misaligned as we were before it all got started.  As leaders, when faced with a threat or competition it is on us to get to the root cause; identify and define it, and then put a plan in place, not backing off until the measurement of success we have decided upon is achieved.  Anything less, and we end up with fault lines all over the place, each making us more vulnerable to our own misgivings and doubts.

Jesus was trying to tell us something.  He was saying to us that if we aren’t with Him, we are in essence against Him because His work is that of loving all, caring for each other and collectively following Him as He asks us to do so.  So, when we leave behind others or ignore their care and well-being, in pursuit of our own desires, then we are breaking ranks with what God has shown us He is all about.  I am reminded so many times a day now that today is not about me, it is about somebody else.  Lord, let me not be a fault line in your Kingdom today.

Reference: Matthew 12:25 (New Living Translation)