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 2357: Slow Thinkers

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“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.”

The writer Ephrat Livni posits that one of the reasons we are becoming so overly opinionated is because we feel the pressure to have a point of view quickly, more often or not now before we have the whole story or a full grasp on the subject. Livni encourages business leaders, and really all of us, to take a breath and find a pattern of slower thinking.  This seems right to me as I think of the leaders who I have worked with who I most admired.  They were similar in that they were well read (lots of books, magazines, research) and they were overly committed to gathering all of the facts before they passed an opinion.  Consequently, they were usually correct when they did pass opinion or judgment. We get so wrapped up in our emails, texts, online newsletters, etc. that we miss the opportunity to stop and read and think. If Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Barack Obama (when President) can carve out an hour a day to read a book, well, that might be a good example for all of us to follow.

I’m convinced that God is a “Slow Thinker”. He does things in His own time and lets us know that this is how it is going to be.  I’m reading the Bible all the way through again this year.  Delving into His Word slows me down.  His Word is not meant to be sped read.  Even as we slog through Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus He can speak to us for when we slow down enough to try and understand, we always learn something about what we are exploring, and better yet, we learn something about ourselves.  So, if we are looking for a place to slow think, let’s start within God’s Word.

Reference: Habakkuk 2:3 (New Living Translation)