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 2516: Disciplined

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“Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise.”

On Saturday of last week I read a story about the elite marathoner, Eliud Kipchoge and how he trains and keeps himself at the top of the running world.  Beyond his physical training his mental training is just as critical and important to him.  As I read his story he uses quotes and axioms to keep him strong.  This one really struck me: “Only the disciplined ones in life are free.”  We could stop right there take inventory of how disciplined we are and probably easily analyze the places in our work (and lives) where we feel trapped or hamstrung, correlating those areas to where we have allowed ourselves or our teams to be less disciplined. But, Kipchoge goes on to add: “If you are undisciplined you are a slave to your moods and your passions.” Yes, we need to be disciplined and if we are not, we risk falling into traps that cause us to lose focus, slow down and potentially wear down and wear out.

Dallas Willard in 1999 wrote a fantastic book; “Spirit of the Disciplines”.  In many ways his book takes us to where Kipchoge challenges us to go. It is only in the spirit and disciplines that Jesus gives us that we can experience true freedom.  We may feel enslaved today to areas in our work and lives that the discipline we need to draw upon is in surrendering to Him what it is that has us trapped.  There is so much that we can’t control, but we can remain disciplined to what He calls us in being a follower.

Note: On Sunday, the next day after reading the article on Eliud Kipchoge, he broke the world Marathon Record at Berlin by nearly 1 minute and 20 seconds! His time…2:01:39! Wow!

Reference:  Proverbs 1:2