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 2651: There Are No Zeros

“He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.”

As I mentioned yesterday, I’ve been watching the Tour de France on television. I’m convinced that these riders, who ride every day (except for 2 rest days) for just over 2 weeks are the greatest of athletes.  The strength, the physical endurance and the mental fortitude to go out day after day in all the elements is just amazing. It’s a funny little quirk but the numbering system of the biker’s numbers never end in zero.  And how could they have any one of these amazing athletes to be designated with a zero?  They are far from that for sure.  It’s likely there is a better reason for this, but it makes me think, what designations do we allow for our employees that might be sending the wrong message?  I just had a conversation last week about job titles and encouraged the CEO to forget about giving someone a “junior” in their job title designation. He listened to me, thankfully.

As you have read from me before, we each are called to be workers for the harvest of the Kingdom, regardless of our profession or titles.  I have to chuckle sometimes as I get ready to speak at church (in RI or SF) and someone will refer to me as “Pastor”.  It makes me feel good, but it also reminds me that we don’t have to be called into the ministry to be a minister.  Our workplaces are our places to share and live out our example for others to see. Yes, there are no “zeros” in God’s ordering either as He has given us each our role and opportunity to be out here for Him.

Reference: Matthew 9:37 (New Living Translation)