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 2724: Walk Like The Samaritan

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“Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.”

Politics might be first in loving to watch someone lose more than loving watching someone win, but business has to be right there close with the same sentiments. Sumner Redstone, the founder of National Amusements, was famous for saying (and I generously paraphrase here as we are faith-driven blog after all), “The more time someone spends climbing the ladder the more and eventually all we see (and don’t appreciate having to see) is their backside.”  So, when they fall or slip a few rungs we seem to want to cheer for the fall, or at the least, ignore them and act as if we have no regrets for them.  It just happened.  Look at those who are reveling in the Softbank loss because of the write down of the We Work investment.  It happens all the time that those in economic distress that need us the most at the time, we let them slip, fall, and stay down, for whatever our own wrong reasons may be.

The Samaritan, the business guy of those who passed by the beaten and robbed (economically distressed) was the only one who stopped, helped him and then got him back on his feet literally and economically.  It was Jesus who told us this story.  It was Jesus who recognized the power of the business person who could assist and replace the economic loss of those taken advantaged of. It was the business person who could find his way above the customs and traditions.  You see where I am going?  It is us who can make the difference all around us,m everyday, if we only choose to walk like the Samaritan.

Reference Luke 10:30 (New Living Translation)