I know I am taking a risk publishing this article. I am risking losing business, customers, and a potential job. Despite these risks, I want to tell this story as I feel the need to fight back.
We all heard about people with conservative views that were “cancelled” -- censored on social media or even lost job opportunities for publishing their views. Unfortunately, it is common for conservatives who express their opinion publicly to be impacted. Many chose to keep their views private for fear of being cancelled. The left succeeded to restrict conservatives from expressing their views for fear of retribution. But when we keep quiet, they succeed, and Marxism wins over freedom. The solution is to fight back and speak up!
It is even worse when the people who are doing the cancelling are the people who claim to be of the same political persuasion. They are either cowards or fake conservatives.
In June 2023 I was finalizing the sale of the business I built since 2015. It was the conclusion of eight grueling years of building a successful multi-million-dollar high-tech automotive company. I was considering other business ideas, but meanwhile to help with funding my next endeavor, I contacted my friend, Chuck Burns, who was one of the two partner owners of Clinton Rubin LLP – an IT consulting firm that primarily did staff augmentation in the Infor ERP space.
Before I started RR Racing with my brother, I spent a career working in the consulting IT, ERP, business software, and data analytics space. Several years before that I helped Clinton Rubin close some ERP data related projects. Both Chuck and his partner Scott Smith seemed to appreciate my efforts then not only for the revenues that they badly needed at the time, but also because these projects gave them the qualification experience, they desperately needed to show that Clinton Rubin was more than just a staff augmentation firm.
I met Chuck at the start of my consulting career with KPMG Consulting. He was just promoted to a senior manager position when we both were assigned to a lucrative ERP project at Boeing Wichita. We ended up selecting SAP for the Boeing Wichita ERP system, and this was how I got into SAP consulting. We had some good times together in Wichita including my bachelor’s party that Chuck organized at the local strip club. The club was in the middle of Boeing’s Wichita plant and was forbidden to be visited by Boeing management and consultants. Our team was nearly thrown off the project for that stint when Boeing Wichita President found out. The Boeing Wichita ERP project was put on hold, and about two months later I left KPMG for a better position in another consulting company.
Chuck was promoted to partner and eventually rose to position of KPMG Consulting Senior Vice President/CFO (which surprised me as he was a better salesman than finance manager). Chuck and I were not close friends, but we were occasionally in touch. In 2020 I introduced him to a conservative Republican candidate for Pennsylvania governor, Joe Gale, and he got excited to help with the campaign – he organized a campaign meeting with his friends and contacts and made some contributions to Gale’s campaign.
After my initial conversation with Chuck in July 2023, several months passed with no action at Clinton Rubin. Then Chuck’s partner Scott Smith contacted me and asked for my help developing a data analytics system for Ceridian – HR Management software company they started to work with. I spent several calls with Chuck and Scott discussing the project with not much clarity. I did some digging on my own and started to develop a plan how to get things moving in the right direction. I sent an email to Scott about how I suggested to proceed but got a surprising reply that they may have decided to move in a different direction. Something seemed odd and then I tried to get a hold of Chuck.
The next day, I got a call from Chuck that informed me that he had a “mutiny on his hands”, and that “his people” were concerned about my relationship with Clinton Rubin given a comment I posted on LinkedIn. I was surprised to say the least that any of the views I expressed on social media were relevant to my work at Clinton Rubin. He told me that he is a Republican but never posts anything for a fear of alienating his customers who are HR people and most of them are probably Democrat leftists. Chuck repeated several times that he never posts anything on any social media. I asked why he was afraid to stand for what he believed in? He just kept repeating the same line that he does not post anything implying that I needed to conform to the same edict. I told Chuck that I would never let anyone limit my free speech and limit where I can express my beliefs. It may not be appropriate to bring up politics during a business meeting with customers, but customers do not have the right to “cancel” you for the opinions you express on-line or anywhere else not related to the business relationship with them.
It turned out that someone at Clinton Rubin did not like my comment on LinkedIn to this post from Lehigh University:
https://www.linkedin.com/embed/feed/update/urn:li:share:7080257554420756481
My comment was this --
Simon Raban Comment to Lehigh Post
I graduated from Lehigh with my master’s degree in manufacturing systems engineering. I am grateful to Lehigh for the excellent education I received. In 2018, however, I noticed a concerning trend of Lehigh becoming dependent on Chinese students and money from China (which means dependent on the Chinese Communist Party). When I expressed interest on behalf of RR Racing to sponsor engineering projects at Lehigh, I was surprised to receive a very lukewarm reply. The then head of Lehigh Industrial Engineering department told me that Lehigh was more interested in us sponsoring graduate students like the support they got from Chinese companies. In 2023 I also noticed based on Lehigh’s publications that Lehigh, as many other higher education institutions in US, moved to the left and supports many leftists causes. The post above was one such example. Lehigh University President basically stated that Lehigh would find a way to circumvent the US Supreme Court decision not allowing to discriminate based on race in college admissions. I felt this was inappropriate and commented on their LinkedIn post (especially, given Lehigh's recent history of cozying up to Chinese).
After my last conversation with Chuck, I have not heard from him nor Clinton Rubin. I have never found out who at Clinton Rubin read my LinkedIn comment and objected to my business relationship with Clinton Rubin. I suspected Scott Smith’s daughter who worked at the firm or their sleazy salesman John, but I have never found out for sure. I wonder if I posted a comment supporting a leftist’s cause, would they still cancel me – probably not.
Is this what US business has come to? US business lost its compass and its roots in the Judea-Christian values that founded this great nation. If someone dares to express opinions not supported by the current regime, they will be cancelled because profits and money are more important than principles and freedom. I hope that we will wake up before it is too late, and we lose our freedoms to the forces of the modern American Marxism.
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I will keep updating this blog based on feedback and reactions.
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It was interesting for me to find out the different reactions to this blog. Most people who read it were supportive. Some could not understand what motivated me to write it. This was especially the reaction from people who are successful in business. From their perspective, why write something that gives me little personal benefit while taking a risk of ruining relationship that may still benefit me or taking a risk of legal action. To these people I said, this was exactly why I wrote this blog article.
I believe it is important to expose when someone is doing something wrong regardless of personal benefit. This cancel culture has been plaguing our society for many years. It is unfortunate that business people think that personal gain is more important than standing for what is right and for your rights. By exposing the wrong, I take a small step to eradicate it. If everyone of us does it, then people will realize it is not an acceptable approach in our society. I hope that you would agree.
