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 2634: Truth and Freedom

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“And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

I wrote about the “innocent lies” and on that same day I finished the TV mini-series, Chernobyl.  It is all about lies. At the end of the series the main character says, “A lie incurs a debt to truth, that must always be repaid.”  That made an impression as I never thought about a lie having a negative impact on truth.  But it is true in that the more lies that we tell, the less the truth becomes obvious, until the truth is so blurred that it becomes unrecognizable and potentially finally gone.  We have to be careful with whatever untruths we hear, see or speak ourselves in that we are doing damage to truth which could have a long-term effect.  The decisions that were made during the Chernobyl crisis, because the truth could not be told, is an impactful cautionary tale.

Consider that if we wade into the spectrum of truth to lies and don’t hold the line for absolute truth, that we are disavowing the one and only absolute Truth that we know and serve.  When we do that then do we not tread into putting the freedom that comes with the truth at risk?  Do we not put at risk others who are seeking God’s truth, but when they see us not calling for truth, not defending truth, not serving truth, that they get dismayed, confused and then ultimately unbelieving enough that they finally just turn away? If there are ever any who are to stand for the truth, live the truth, call out the untruths and correct for the truth, it is us.  If we stand on untruths or with those who peddle lies as if they are truth, it puts so much of what we stand for at risk in the eyes of those who are watching and seeking for the one absolute Truth to set them free! It’s a big responsibility we have.

Reference: John 8:32 (New Living Translation)