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 2442: In Comparison

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“…but not like his ancestor David.”

Tesla Founder and CEO, Elon Musk, has a problem.  Well, actually he has lots of problems.  Right now, the company is bleeding cash, missing production schedule commitments on the Model 3 car and trying to achieve their self-imposed goal of being cash-flow positive by middle of this fiscal year.  These are all daunting and has Tesla shareholders and analysts on edge.  But, just as daunting are the comparisons that Elon Musk has to live up to in his professional life.  He has been fashioned as a Bill Gates, a Thomas Edison, a Steve Jobs and even a Tony Stark (the alter-ego of Iron Man).  Much of this has been put on him by others, but he hasn’t done a lot to try to use humility or self-depreciation to tamp down the comparisons.  So, he has to live up to a set of standards that in reality are probably impossible to achieve. It is fine for us to be bold, courageous and confident in our approach to our business, but we need to be careful that we don’t allow ourselves to fall to the trap of hubris when we start believing the reviews of others who like to put companies and people on pedestals just to see if they can live up to the hype.

I’ve been spending time in the Old Testament and the two Book of Kings are always fascinating to me. I was struck this week on the number of times that the writers come back and compare a King’s life and reign with that of King David.  In fact, it happens over and over and he is held up as the standard that these numerous king’s would always fall short. It would be great to be the example and standard-bearer for others as their example of what Jesus looks like through us.  We should strive for that, but we should also remember that with that comes the threats of haughtiness, arrogance and worshiping of ourselves, and ultimately our own failings which can be devastatingly looked upon by those who are watching how we live our lives. Let’s shoot to be the best we can be for Christ in our workplaces, but let’s remember, that the comparison should never be about us, but only about Him!

Reference: 2 Kings 14:3 (New Living Translation)