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 2599: Food Trucks

purposed worKING No Comments

“Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work.”

Food Trucks.  They are the thing now.  Companies are inviting food trucks to pull up near their company, willing to lose the revenue of their own cafeterias, so that their employees can have choice and get that “we ate from food trucks today” hip badge.  It was not that long ago that eating from a food truck was reserved for those who couldn’t get to a cafeteria, like construction sites.  But today, the food trucks are considered the coolest and the best alternative.  A basic need like nutrition, as we always have known can be made cool – that’s the restaurant world.  But, turning food trucks into a first choice is a great marketing and cultural change.  It begs the question as to what else do we have in front of us that we could, with a little marketing and repositioning turn something we didn’t like into something we desire to have?

I know I sometimes take for granted that Jesus’ decision to follow the will of God was somehow so divine that Jesus didn’t consider anything else other than what was in front of Him.  But, we know that He prayed that the cup be taken from Him but only if it was God’s will.  Jesus’ power and ability could have been conveniently leveraged to grasp power, create wealth and riches for Himself and his disciples, become so popular that He could have made anyone believe in Him. But, he didn’t reach for that type of nourishment.  It’s like He didn’t fall for the world’s food trucks, instead He stayed on the meal of God’s will, even when He knew that was going to be was harder than what any other human would have ever experienced. And, to carry the metaphor further, Jesus never looked at His nourishment as something that he took for granted.  He finished His meal.  All of it and just for us!  Where are we going to get our nourishment from today?

Reference:  John 4:34 (New Living Translation)