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 3K295: Conventional Wisdom

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“If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.”

It is “Earnings Season”.  This is the couple of weeks following a close of the calendar quarter when businesses report their financial earnings from the previous three months and also set expectations with shareholders and analysts as to what they can expect in the coming quarter and the rest of the financial year. This is also the time when we wait and see how Wall Street reacts to the news.  And, as part of all the talk we hear a lot of people say, “Conventional wisdom would mean….”.  Conventional Wisdom is interesting because conventional means: “based on or in accordance with what is generally done or believed.”  Which, means that what was once conventional can not be conventional at another time because what is “generally done” or “believed” can change.  Which is why we need to balance it with “wisdom” as a modifier (wisdom meaning: “the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.”). When someone just throws out “Conventional Wisdom” as a reason, we should stop and ensure that the basis of the convention is sound and the person making the statement comes to the topic with real wisdom.  Otherwise, we might end up making decisions or taking action from the wrong data points.

I find myself more and more often praying for “Wisdom”.  Maybe that is because what was once “Conventional Wisdom” for many subjects has been thrown out the window.  I, like many of you, get asked all the time for advice and counsel and I like to think that is because others might think that I have some wisdom to be shared.  With that comes the responsibility to return to He who is all wise and do my/our best to build from His perspective first and then work forward from there.  James tells us that if we ask for it, God will share, so let’s not miss the gift that is being offered to us to gain His wisdom.

Reference: James 1:5 (New Living Translation)