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 2360: $0.99 Easy

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“He did all this so you would never say to yourself, ‘I have achieved this wealth with my own strength and energy.’

At the beginning of the Internet, everything digital was free.  No one would pay for anything.  We’d get the consumer right to the point of putting in their credit card number and then they’d abandon (the internet term that became a measure of success or failure – “The Abandon Rate”) the purchase.  We long questioned why?  Was it that the content on the Internet wasn’t of value?  Was it that they didn’t trust the Internet company to actually deliver what was being sold?  Was it that they didn’t trust the security of their credit card with an unknown retailer?  Was it that it seemed silly to pay for something when you could go to another site and get it for free?  I think it was all the above and oh my have we moved past those days! If you don’t think we have, just think back to your last App or In-App purchase and how fast that transaction for 0.99 went; with just one fingerprint or access code.  “Easy peazy” as they would say. It’s great news for digital purveyors who have content of value to be sold.  Breaking our purchases down into small incremental amounts that can add up, is a smart way to do business.

But, let’s not get too heady about how easy it is to now sell and make money. God reminds us that when we begin to get haughty about these things, that we are in the wrong place with Him. Nothing of what we achieve in our jobs or career is just because of us.  It’s not us that created the skills and talents we have.  It’s not us that opened and closed the doors that we couldn’t even imagine, much less controlled.  It’s a reminder today that we come to the marketplace each and every day with what God has given us and we need to be reminded that success as defined by the world, is not ours, it is from Him and that these successes should be proceeded with gratitude and humility.

Reference: Deuteronomy 8:17 (New Living Translation)