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 2756: Being Cooperative

“Do not be like a senseless horse or mule that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control”

Invariably, we will run into people who are really smart, they might be younger than others, they have behind them accomplishments and accolades and they have all the potential in the world. But, they have one problem; they just don’t like to be cooperative with others.  We each know that person and we each know that that person was not someone that we aspired to be like. It might have been that we didn’t even really like that person and would never have considered being their friend outside of work.  Being cooperative and someone who encourages and models cooperation is the one that others look up to and we will go the extra mile for them.  Which are we known as being the cooperative one or the one who doesn’t like to cooperate?

The Psalmist, using the analogy of the “senseless” horse or mule who does not cooperate, is very clear that we are not to be that way.  Consider how we are perceived when we refuse to cooperate with others.  And think harder about how powerful the witness can be when we do cooperate with others around us.

Reference: Psalm 32:9 (New Living Translation)