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 2580: You to We

“The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.””

It was August 1, 2003 in Santa Monica, CA that Chris DeWolfe, Tom Anderson and Jon Hart founded a nascent social media site; MySpace. Two years later it was on top of the world and so dominant that there was discussion about whether or not anyone else could legally use the modifier “My”.  At SNOCAP  we did (MyStore) but only because we had a deal with MySpace and the MyStores resided only on MySpace pages.  Even then the lawyers and PR people were nervous.  And now 16 years later, no one really owns the term “My” in the zeitgeist.  We have progressed?  Today, the term is “We”.  WeWork changed the name of their parent company to “The We Company”.  WeWork will only be a brand extension, with the plan being to create WeLive, WeGrow, etc.  My guess is that somewhere lawyers are advising others against any modifier that starts with “We”.  How times change and how they don’t.

I loved a few weeks ago when the coach of the Clemson football team while accepting the Championship trophy said that he was filled with “JOY” and that “JOY” is the love of Jesus, Others and Yourself, in that order.  Yes, our God is all about our love for Him first and then all around us.  Our “We”.  As we go about our work today, what can we do to move the focus away from “My”, shift it to “We,” and make it all because of Him.

Reference:  Mark 12:31 (New Living Translation)