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 2535: Bold Moves – Part 5: Courage And Conviction

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“But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its windows open toward Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God.“

Fast Company Magazine recently ran an article about 10 CEO moves that changed business. We can learn from each of them.

We take it for granted now that the press and media will go to no lengths to uncover a story and challenge the government. That wasn’t always the case and it was Katharine Graham in 1971 as the Publisher of The Washington Post for having the courage to print The Pentagon Papers alongside The New York Times. The difference between Ms. Graham and the New York Times is that printing the papers when she did was just prior to her IPO and it could have messed up everything for the paper and her. But, she felt such courage and conviction that she was doing the right so deeply thing that she risked it all.  We don’t always know, or actually end up doing the right thing, but to have deep enough conviction and strong enough courage to do what we think is right, gains us, if nothing else, respect.

How many times have we read or hear the story of Daniel and how he had both conviction and courage to continue to practice his faith, even when not just his livelihood but his life was on the line and take the story too lightly for what it was?  As I write this, there is someone and probably many across the globe who are making that same decision today with the same life consequences in mind. They don’t look to Daniel as a role model, they look to Daniel as a promise of what God will do if we stand up for Him. Courage and Conviction are part of our faith journey and both will be tested when what we think is the most important thing we will have going on in our careers and lives. That voice inside telling us the right thing to do, that is likely God giving us a subtle reminder to lean back on Him to get us through what is coming.

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