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 2569: Don’t Fear The Room

purposed worKING No Comments

“Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do, and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.”

The Broadway smash hit, Hamilton, has a song that the character Aaron Burr sings called “The room where it happens”  Burr laments that he wasn’t in the room with Hamilton, Jefferson and Madison where they cut the deal to move the capitol to Washington, D.C. in exchange for centralizing the US monetary system at the federal level of government. Burr demands to be in the room where it happens, or that if he isn’t he is missing out and that just can’t be. We have all felt that FOMO and want to be in the room, but we have also had the fear that when we are in the room that there are already things happening that are unsaid and which we are unaware.  This can cause a feeling that there is a conspiracy being hatched and that we will be the victims.  What is the answer to both fears?  If we practice extreme transparency and allow ourselves to be vulnerable enough to accept criticism and take straight feedback without becoming defensive, then we will have a better chance of being in the room and also the feelings and opinions of the room will be known to us.  Net, just don’t fear the room.  Fear gets us no where.

We are not be people of fear or dread.  There are too many of God’s promises available to us for us to live in fear.  We have to ask ourselves this question:  “Why would God open this door, put me here in this room of possibility and opportunity just to abandon me here alone to watch me fail?  He wouldn’t.  We are His children and while we have the freedom to run into the streets, if we stay close to Him, He let’s us know where to curb ourselves before we are harmed. Remember, He’s actually always in the room with us, no matter what room that is.

Reference: Isaiah 8:12 (New Living Translation)