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 3K290: Putting In The Hours

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“You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.”

We are not unaccustomed in putting in the hours to master a skill, a craft or a profession.  We’ve all heard Malcolm Gladwell’s theory of needing to put in 10,000 hours to master anything.  But, do we stop and think enough about what kind of hours need to be invested in others to obtain the deep and fruitful relationships we need in the workplace and in general life?  Research shows that it take about 90 hours to go from being an acquaintance to a good friend and then another 200 hours beyond that to become close enough to confide in each other.  To get to 200 hours that would mean working with someone side by side, all the time, for 5 weeks.  That can happen.  If once a week we have an interaction, that would mean 200 weeks for over 4 years.  That can happen too. I’ve had it happen in my own life inside and outside of work.  Over 20 years ago my friends John and Peter (a loyal PwK reader) and I started running together on Saturday mornings. We logged a lot of miles and hours.  We surpassed well over the 200 hours and it became true that while on the road we could talk about anything (and we have the rule “what’s on the road, stay’s on the road”).  The point here is that we can take many opportunities in life and turn them into lifelong friendships, if we are willing.

We also have to put in the hours to deepen our relationship with God.  The best thing here is that He is always available (He doesn’t keep Church of Office Hours) and His willingness to deepen the relationship is limitless. We just have to be willing to put in the hours.

Reference: Matthew 24:44 (New Living Translation)