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 2394: Stress On The Go!

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“As pressure and stress bear down on me, I find joy in your commands.”

A buddy went through a major acquisition process. He told me that in the last five days of the process, he slept nine hours total.  Now, I don’t know about you, but that I don’t think I could do.  But, if we have to, we can.  There is something about the stress that keeps us going…until we can’t. In February we got to see the winter Olympic athletes as they competed at the highest levels of competitive stress.  There were lots of falls, slips, and unforced mistakes that could only be attributed to the pressures of stress. The US Biathlete (skiing and shooting) Clare Egan provided these stress “relievers”, which in her sport stress alleviation is critical to control.  And, these are good for all of us who don’t compete at the Olympic level or don’t even compete in any sport but look for how to reduce the stresses of work and our careers:

  • Be prepared
  • Exhale slowly
  • Be mindful
  • Focus on the task, not the results
  • Compete against only yourself

There are many accounts in the Bible of some serious times of stress.  And none of them that I can remember teach us to give up, pack it in, don’t push through, etc.  Jesus persevered hrough under the greatest of stress and He kept going towards and through the cross, regardless of the stress upon Him.  He followed the commands of His Father, which is exactly what we are to do. Let’s also remember today that when everyone around us is stressed out, our calm and peace with what we have been given and teachings and commands to find our way through, is a different way.  And different ways; they are noticed.

Reference: Psalm 119: 143 (New Living Translation)