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 2638: Peace and Quiet

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“Make it your goal to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we instructed you before.”

Yesterday, I wrote of Salt and Peace.  Today, let’s pick up with Peace and add Quiet. The workplace has changed a lot over the past 30 years.  We went from offices to cubicles, from cubicles to open working spaces, from open working spaces to hoteling, from hoteling to working at home, from working at home to shared working spaces with other companies like WeWork buildings  But all along, we have sought a place for peace and quiet to think and be most productive.  Where once we closed the door to get our work done, today we might put in our airbuds or disappear all together and end up in a corner somewhere to be unseen and for others to be unheard.  Regardless, we all need some peace and quiet every now and then and when we can give it to others, it’s a real gift.

I have long been curious about the verse above  because on the surface when read it is telling us to go to work in almost a solitary way. But, I have come to realize that this verse can be situational and relative to a person’s talents and job. Patti and I watched the American Film Institute (AFI) Lifetime Achievement ceremony for Denzel Washington.  Few would say, on the surface, that he would embody the lesson to the Thessalonians. But, if you listen closely, he is a man of faith, living his life and going about his own business, his own craft, working with his skills given and creating peace and quiet around him. If a bigger than life person like Denzel can find that peace and quiet, so we can we, in any job that we are given.

Reference:  1 Thessalonians 4:11 (New Living Translation)