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 2716: Companies Don’t Go To Heaven

“Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people.”

A few weeks ago we had a great guest on our Faith Driven Entrepreneur podcast (Greg Leith – his episode will air sometime soon) and he said something that will stick with me forever; “Companies don’t go to heaven”. It’s a great reminder and lesson that there is a real danger in thinking that the output of our companies or organization are what God is watching for and favoring?  Of course God wants us to maximize and see our talents utilized for His glory and I think he does smile on us when we are an example of a commitment to being and doing our best, but like praying for a football team to win, other than what that victory or loss may do to change the openness of a soul to Him, He’s not looking at the season standings.  (I know, I am going to hear from the New Orleans Saints and fans who think they have a higher status to God than the rest of us. Sorry Drew. 😊 ) Similarly, God isn’t counting market share points, Net Promoter Scores, or EBITDA growth. There won’t be a stock ticker in Heaven!  So, let’s do our best to not get the output of what we do confused with the why we do it.

Reference: Colossians 3:23 (New Living Translation)