FUN AND PIONEERING SKILLS: DOING BUSINESS IN SOUTH KOREA IN THE 1980s
Hi everybody. I'm Bill Gentry. I am now speaking to you from Santa Fe, which trust me is uh, almost, if not really actually another planet, but I'm here with Mark. And Mark, you were just talking to me…We met first…tell me, go ahead with that little story about how we first met. Oh, yeah. I, when I graduated from, I guess it was Missouri State, Southwest Missouri State.
They call it Southwest Missouri State, back in 1990. And I was hired on by your father, uh, right in 1991. And so we were talking a little bit, that's when I first, I wanna say I met you cuz I didn't really physically meet you till, I think it was a sales meeting at Table Rock Lake and that's a whole ‘nother story at that time.
Cause that was…I remember some that, but prior to that it was just… there was people going to the hospital in that meeting, Mark Burg, Manish. You remember that guy at the…? I know exactly the story; yeah, he worked for me.
We're gonna talk about Korea today. For those who are interested in this podcast, I have
questions here that I try to sound, you know, not canned or anything like that, but I was reading one of your questions and it sounded, it said you something about, let's talk about Korea in the eighties. Right. And I was thinking, well, shit, I mean, I didn't know you were in that part of the country because when I first talked to you, you were in California and, and you were, I think at that time getting together with Audrey? Or maybe had just met her or it was somewhere around in there? So I didn't know you had this prior…maybe I'm wrong…I didn't know you had this prior life to California. So maybe you can give us a little timeline? Because I think a lot of your adventures and stuff like that, you know, you're like started with Positronic from the mass population.
They've been, they were done in on the sly . I was a salesman. Listen, Positronic funded a lot of your shenanigans, right? So let's start out. So come on Mark; let's stay friends. So let's, alright, me first; Where were you in the eighties? Tell me about your eighties and what happened iwhen the company, the family business, burned down?
I came back from California where I was living as an artist and making my, making a living as an artist, a glass etching artist, and the company burned down; the Rogersville factory. I'm sure you heard about that. And so I came back. I'm a glass catching artist. Really? I did not know. See, that's more I didn't know about it.
What wwere you like? Did you work at like in Branson or blowing those little things? Oh, we're talking Los Angeles. Oh, I thought you were a glasst…the blocks on Atlantic Boulevard, at a glass etching company. And we were doing mostly work for the casinos in Vegas. Really? Very interesting, detailed carvings of glass, really.
And I worked my way up the, the food chain. By the time I left, I was a manager at a competitor to my original company. But, uh, the company burned down. Uh, it was tragedy. Unbelievable. Uh, I, I gave notice the next day. And moved back to Springfield and I started to work in the rebuild. And, um, and in the middle of that process by, uh, and what, what year is this?
Uh, 83. 83. Okay. Just getting a timeline. That's all from my, yeah. 83. And so I, I started to, uh, train as a salesman and train, uh, doing trade shows. I did, I think for one year. All I did, uh, for the company was trade shows at up. And I'll tell you this, just on that note the trade show booth that you built…Yes?... has put many, many a salesman into, I think, traction or something like that! I mean, I think somebody referred to it as a jewelry cabinet at one point in time. You, you know, the first show we, we had that booth. We won the best booth of the sh… of the exhibition event award. Did you, anyhow, let me get doing a trade show in Seoul.
Can I just edit one more thing? You can edit this out, but what the best part about it was, best part, this might be the best part of the whole video was, was putting the booth back into the crate. Because you could tell who the next person, when the booth came out, you're like, What the f*** is this? ? It was like, it's outta the box.
She'd open the box. Oh my God. . . So anyway, gorgeous! It was gorgeous. And our products were like jewels. I mean, I'm sure people, it was like a jewelers. So anyway, you're in, so your first trade show somewhere around the 80, 84, 85, you're in Korea, right? Uh, well, the first time I, I left America on business, the mandate was, to spread around the globe. Not to be so vulnerable to having one factory and customer base just in America.
So I began my, my journeys to Asia with a trip to trade show in Seoul, Korea at an exhibition. And it was, you know, it was the beginning of the, of the new part of my life. The, the most interesting thing to me, and, and I would say of all the places I've ever been and still go to Korea, is the phenomenally massive successful change of going from really poverty and downtrodden society after the Korean War to becoming what it is now.
It's one of the top six economies in the world. Wow. My hat goes off to… I give so much credit to… I have so many good friends in Korea. And they are hardworking. You know, they play hard, they work hard. They're, they're ruthless, they're intelligent. So I can't say enough positive about so many of the things I've learned about Korea, but as I'm flying into Korea, first time I'm on PanAm Airlines not in business anymore.
Uh, I used to go from Seattle to Seoul, cuz. This was just the beginning of what became more trips on the airplane. 90% of the people on all the flights over there were just, they were, um, American military going to the base. Uh, that was, uh, I believe the base was called Ewan. It was the part of town was Ewan, right in the, the center of Seoul, Korea.
But flying in the plane is coming in over the terrain, and I'm expecting one of the world's largest cities, which Seoul is. And there's like, there's no lights. Where are the lights? Where, where's the city? I mean, what, what? This is bizarre. I expected to see a glowing metropolis. We fly in, we land, and I progress on my first, you know, uh, to run a trade show as part of the American pavilion working through the embassy. But as I learned later, there was no lights because people back then couldn't afford lights and electricity. It was a poor country. It's, it's like, you might think of, uh, you know, Mexico 20, 30 years ago.
Uh, you know, you fly in and it's desert and it's, there's very few lights. You, you're landing out in the middle of nowhere. And that's kind of the way it felt when I, when I first flew into… It was, it was a poor country- just beginning it’s ascendance to success. So I flew in and, um, became, you know, set up this trade show.
It was the first one I'd done overseas and a lot of the booth was just kind of simple, you know, you know, pop-up type stuff. You bring in your toss posters up on the wall. And I, of course, I didn't speak any Cree, and this is way back before there's fax machines. It's way back before really pretty much anybody spoke English, um, in Asia.
So you had to find, you know, special people who, you could get as translators. So through the embassy I found this young lady, uh, they gave, you know, her to me. She offered, uh, her services to me. Her name was Ian Kim and, um, Kim. I would say within 24 hours I was madly in love with Ian. There's one thing that Korea has; a… spoiler alert: It's beautiful women. Spoiler alert for Bill, right? Spoiler alert. You know, you Bill, young Kim…All right. If you ever meet, um, a group of Koreans, I think somewhere around 80% of them are their last name. Their surname is, is Kim. And Kim means gold.
You can look at us. Gold. Gold. So 80% of the people, uh, in Korea are Mr. Gold and Mrs. Gold. Well, Ian. “U,N” she said was the spelling, she said, my, my first name is silver. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this is unbelievable. I mean, I'm, I'm working with Silver and Gold, and she was gorgeous and she spoke English. She was our translator.
And I'm like, I, I love Korea. I'm never going Asia. I love Korea and I'm working with silver and gold. Other than that, the trade show wasn't a, a huge success. It was a, you know, coming in, scratching the surface, uh, getting my feet wet, beginning the process of uh, were you by yourself? Lemme else.
Yeah. What company was small back then, Mark, and there had been some people who had been out and done a trip or two to Asia, I think it was Taiwan, and, and they begged my father. Please don't make me ever have to go back there again. Mm-hmm, I got the job by, uh, you know, I was the last resort. Yeah.
Man, I'm like 24, 25 years old. So, um, I took to international travel, you, let's say, um, swimming or whatever the term might be, and, um, I got my feet wet in in Korea. My second trip to Korea was after I'd left the company and then came back and I was working in California, like you had mentioned.
Okay. That, uh, when you first heard about me, I was living in Sunnyvale, so we started to do a lot of business, more and more business, you know, in California especially. We were a Midwest company originally doing mostly, uh, aircraft type components for, you know, the McDonald Douglass's and the king radios in the Midwest.
But, We started to do a fair amount of business with a lot of these, uh, adventurous startups, especially in the computer industry in the Bay Area. And we were doing, um, a project with a company called Tandem Computer. Do you remember? Tandem Computer. Alright. They were, they were inventors of the fault tolerant computer.
Yeah. Well, I don't remember that. But anyway, um, so you, so Sunnyvale…So my second trip. What? Go ahead. So Sunnyvale, that's up by the, uh, that's up… just trying to get people in… Sunnyvale's up by, uh, San Francisco, right? Yeah. It's the heart of the silicon. All right. Sorry. Yeah, back in Mountain Houston.
This, this is right around, this is right around the time when this is 87, I think 86. This is very, this is like somebody had just lit the W on the telecommunications boom because we didn't have cell phones and stuff like that. I mean, they maybe had 'em, but they weren't like what we had today. Right. The first cell phone I ever saw, and as you…they weren't cell phones. They were car phones. Yes, that's exactly right. You're right. The first cell phone I ever saw was probably on my third trip to Korea, and there was this very well connected, uh, salesman who we'd sort of met somebody who introduced, uh, them to me to try and be our agent in in Korea.
And he was, uh, very, uh, wealthy. Drove around in a limousine. I'd sit in the back. What? Yeah. Yeah. Driver. Uh, so many of the, the, the wealthy people over in Asia have drivers still, but especially back then. His, his sister was married to a general. Wow…in the Korean Army or the Amer, the US, Korean army.
Okay. So he had connections. And I'll get into some of that uh, let me talk about the second trip too… where we flew in to… uh, dealt with some cable assembly issues of crimping of contacts. And so we, I land and somebody meets me, uh, from this company in Korea and we, we do this like four hour drive out into the countryside of Korea.
And Korea is a gorgeous country. It's like 80, 85% of Korea is mountains. Wow. Men, men in the valleys. You have these, these quaint, gorgeous, uh, well, uh, organized rice farms and, and, uh, farms of various vegetables. So, it's farms in the valleys; these, these very beautiful, uh, homes. The farmers were usually not necessarily that poor.
Uh, so they would have like an estate and they've got, you know, the shape, the little curve damned on the typical Asian building. So drive for four hours through the mountains, through the rice fields, and we come to this giant factory, I think 5,000 employees. Wow.
You know, wow! 4,990 of them are women and there're like 10 guys who are the kings running this. I was like, you're kind of place man. So, I'm brought into the lobby and escorted by some of these, you know, pretty ladies in there and almost, they're still back in those days, uh, wearing kimono like gear or, or outfits.
And we go into the office of the the chairman of the company that are usually not called presidents over there; they're managing directors or presidents. And this guy was the owner. Emperor, I think he was like the emperor. And we go in and we have a meeting and the conference room back in those days was not a typical conference room, you know, where you're sitting in a chair.
We sat on pillows on, on the floor, and of course, uh, there's only one person in there who speaks both Korean and and English. And he's translating and we're trying to figure out what the issue is on why our products are not working with their equipment. Well, it turns out their equipment wasn't compatible with our products and, and it wasn't a very…a difficult, uh, solution or solve, but I, I would say I was right in the middle.
And I was crossing through the veil there, Al there was always this talk about the mysterious orient and the veil that kind of protected them from the west and always made it very mysterious. And I go into this room, this conference room, and I'm surrounded, I almost felt like there, there should have been billows of opium smoke flowing through the air.
Cuz you know, the, this chairman was just so like…He was like so sedated by something. It was just so cool cuz he had a kingdom. He was a king. King. Over 5,000, uh, employees. Like it almost went back in time. It was, it was so exotic, you know. I had this great opportunity to start making these trips.
Now, the following trips, uh, any questions? I am, I'm blah, blah, blah. You know? it sounds good. I was just saying it's a, it almost sounds like, you know how, like I grew up. Kind of late seventies and the eighties, but you know, in the eighties was kind of a special time. Right?
I'm mean, I'm just from music and just, you know, culture and how everything was coming out of that. But it almost sounds like Korea. I'm gonna say this Korea, but the, this Asian community that you're visiting. There's still many years behind our, our co… I don't wanna say our culture, but the times. It sounds like when you go there, it's almost like kind of going into a time warp, right?
Cause you still see the kimonos. Well, you know in essence, I'd say anytime you go to what, let's say a country that's the third world. Yeah, it might be Nicaragua, or iit might be Venezuela, it might be Kenya? Or in, in those days it was included Korea. Now you've got, uh, you could still probably call Laos where I've been or Burma where I've been.
Those, those are definitely in a third world category still, but Korea was then. And what's amazing is how Korea, after the devastation and the split of their country in the Korean War, how they really worked their butts off to become sixth economically wealthy country in the world.
That's incredible. So many famous companies that we all just take for grant. Or household words? Uh, household names like Samsung. You know, I visited Samsung on my first few trips. LG, you know? LG, LG, yeah. Got several other things right here. You know what LG used to stand for? I don't know. Officially Lucky Gold Star.
So really we go visit Lucky Gold Star and they, back in those days, They were making ships, you know, gigantic ships. Hyundai, the motor company, you know, very successful. Uh, they're also, I think still to this day, one of the largest ship builders in the world. These massive, I think they called them tribals or something.
And they would these giant corporations they would make everything. And some of them got into electronics like Samsung. Um, some didn't do so well. Lucky Gold Star became Life's Good, LG. They became very successful in in electronics. Some of the others, like Hyundai, they went a different direction.
Automotive, more heavy industry, and they're still global champions of, of industry. In Singapore where I lived, so much of all the sky scrapers in Singapore, the projects are… the buildings are you know, a hundred story buildings are built by Koreans, see? Wow, we come down and oversee the projects, the engineering, expertise, et cetera.
Can you see a difference in the Asian cultures between different Asian countries, like the Koreans, different than the Singaporeans, which might be different than the Vietnamese, uh, the Cambodians, stuff like that? Or, I'm just wondering cuz like, so it sounds like Korea really got their shit together, right?
I mean, come seriously. Going from zero to the hard, hard work. They're ruthless. They're ruthless. I mean, the, the sales guys that I would work with in Singapore, or just meet, you know, at dinner parties and so forth, there was a lot of people in Singapore working for other companies doing similar stuff to me.
And in general, the comment was, you know, the toughest place to do business where you have to change over and do business their way-that's Japan. The corporations that always got the best price in the world and you'd see it happen cuz they're, they're so difficult in negotiating was Koreans.
Koreans, tough negotiators, hard, hardworking, in the American school. In uh, Singapore, my sons would talk about… you've got all the, you know, the people, all the Americans at the American school, the occasional Chinese, a lot of Indian born, uh, and Koreans. And, and he said everybody would be judged on, in sort of like one stratosphere.
But when it comes to the Koreans, oh, they, they're in their own world. They're like, they're in another world. You can't compare me to a Korean. They're crazy. You know, their parents, you know, stand over 'em with a, with a switch and they have to get up at five in the morning and take violin classes.
And then they go to the algebra tutor and then by seven they're at school and then they get outta school and then they'll go, I don't know, take swimming lessons. And then (it’s) nice man, on weekends, it would be, I don't know? Tennis? Or, I mean, they were always pushed very hard. The Korean kids, and I imagine it's still pretty much that way, because could you imagine if you would've been born in Korea, good lord, they would've thrown you off a cliff for…?
Well, I think my parents tried even as Americans to do that. I landed on. So what, so this is your second trip there? There's got, like I say, I, we got more, but you know what? I think of Korea: I think of Mash cuz I'm, I'm borderline retarded too. But I also like their food man. I mean the, you know, what about their food?
You like Korea? Oh, I um, it took me a while. I would say of all the Asian foods, it took me the longest to get used to Korean. Really I'll mention, I think it's very interesting that when you go to a Korean restaurant, you still basically 90% of all the Korean restaurants, you're still sitting on the floor.
Right? Whereas the other Asian cultures have kind of gone up to chairs for the most part, unless you're in an older style in a restaurant; traditional food type something or other of which, you know, there's still a lot of that. But the Koreans, I always found it very interesting that they served all the food.
You, you'd sit down to eat and let's say you're having bulgogi..Yeah. Very famous now in America: bulgogi. It's my favorite form of beef eating and it's, and it's marinated beef, and it's cooked in front of you and all the juice flows off, and you can make a little sauce with the, with the juice. But along with the bulgogi, they'll bring you out like seven, eight dishes, you know, with kimchi and, and maybe some potato salads.
And all the bowls are like stainless steel metal. And then also the chopsticks in Korea: they're not wooden; they're not plastic; the chopsticks are also made of really kinda a uniquely distinguishing thing about pre and food. But, uh, another one of my favorite foods, of course, there's kimchi and, and once upon a time there was kimchi eaten in Korea, a person like 30 feet away walking towards you with what I would call the kimchi breath, which is, it's buried in the ground and it's fermented, it's fermented cabbage mixed with…
and they put the red chili on everything. Everything that you're eating, you get the red chili, but they, uh, the kimchi breath, you would know right away- Oh, Korean guy; He's coming down the hallway here… I'm telling you, man. I'll tell you.
I'll give you just one little anecdote: I can't tell you if this guy was Korean now, but I was in Freemont, California…
You know where that's at there, little south. Oh yeah. It's just down around the end of the bay from San Sunnyville. So, I… Fremont there, right? That's where Tesla is, I think. Yeah, I think so. I don't know. Tesla got their factory there. They bought some Chevy factory or whatever. Go ahead please.
But anyway, I was in this little, uh, I was introduced to sushi late in life. You know, in my late twenties, thirties, never had it before. Right. And I, you know, so I was very interested. Anyway, to make a long story short: On my own I went to the sushi restaurant. Right. But it was a little one, just a little one- off the thing.
And I was sitting there by myself and I, I just ordered the normal stuff. Right. I was kind of venturing off into the unni and every little things, but there's this an Asian guy sitting kind of at the corner thing and he's, they're speaking Asian, and he goes underneath and he's…he pulls out this, well, he was speaking something I didn't understand.
It could have…I just grouped that all together; they're speaking something, speaking that thing. Speaking. That's speaking Asian man, and he pulls out this pot from underneath the thing, underneath the bar and hands it to this guy. Right. And he takes the top off and he starts eating this stuff, right?
And the smell was repulsed. It was, I was thinking to myself, what in the hell are you eating, man? For God's sakes. You know what I mean? But I'm telling you, I, I've smelled that kimchi and I've actually tried it, and I, I just can't get past that.I' ve not been able to acquire that. I know we wanna talk more about…let's, talk a little bit more about, you know, like Soul Korea itself.
Tell me about Seoul and, you know, and I went through, as I'm traveling there, more. What year are we at? Well, let's say we're, um, I'm still around, let's say 1990. Okay. And we found our first formal distributor. You're not located in Singapore yet, right? No, no, no, no. I don't move to Singapore until 95.
Okay. I'm just trying to get time. I'm spending about two months a year in Asia back in those days, mostly going to Japan and Korea and then starting to go into Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia, et cetera. But most of our efforts were in, in Korea first, and then Japan. Cuz back in those days, Mark, as you know, we were starting to get into the telecom commuter world, but we were still mostly aircraft connectors.
I. e., and so there was a big defense industry, uh, in Korea still is., And there was some defense industry in Tokyo, but we met a distributor who thought he could take our military products and make 'em, you know, successful in, in Japan. But that's another story. But anyhow, like I said, this one guy who I had met whose wife was married to a general, he got us onto the Ewan base.
Okay. Which is like 40, 50,000 American GI’s based there. And he got us tee times to play golf on this very exclusive base course. And it's the only time in my life, because it's so exclusive and it's so hard to get onto this course. We tee off and it starts raining on the first hole. Uhhuh. We played the entire round.
Because this is such an exclusive, unique opportunity. We played 18 holes pretty much in the pouring rain . Wow. How'd you shoot? You probably shot. I, you know, I think I probably shot maybe, uh, you know, 75 or something. Oh, in pouring rain, not so bad. No, I have no idea. I think that was, it was like playing golf underwater.
But also, Rio was very famous in those times for making the best leather goods, leather jackets, leather shoes, purses, anything, all the best leather goods in the world made in Korea. And you could go to the shopping area right outside the base called…,One of the first things I ever learned was the phrase, “Get in the taxi.” Well, that means, “I need to go to quickly.” “Don't take me the long route where I have three times extra” in the taxi. I mean, you know, I'm faking; like I really know Korean! So, I would try to plan a trip to, Korea and then go to Ewan in like November before Christmas every year.
And buy some really cool knockoffs. You know, one third, the normal price of leather goods in high quality garments in Korea. So that was, uh, made the trips there have a little special benefit bonus. And then, you know, eventually they shut all that down because they're not supposed to be selling knockoffs. Because it got to be a huge industry and they eventually moved the base, outside the town because Seoul became such a huge and prominent and successful metropolis.
The, the real estate was just too expensive. And it was, so much of benefit for the government. I don't know what the deal was between the US government and, and the Korean government, but they left and moved outside of town and that whole Ewan thing has changed. They talk about horrible traffic jams.
It’s like places like Bangkok or in Paris. Nothing. Nothing would comparew ith the traffic jams that started to arise around 19… late 80s, 90s in Seoul. Is it, as everybody-overnight, got enough money to buy a car. Yeah. And they had no highway structure. They had no, uh, metro system, and it was just a nightmare to get anywhere in Seoul, Korea.
Back in those days. I heard Koreans, I don't know this, I don't wanna sound stereotypical or anything like that, but I heard Koreans can outdrink anybody. Now, is that true? Do Koreans like their… to imbibe at all? I'm not gonna say they necessarily can outdrink anybody, but I will say that they probably drink more especially in a business situation, than even the Japanese.
Wow. And that's not something that a lot of the people know. But, uh, the Japanese, for people who know the Japanese, are considered…their biggest weakness is alcohol. But the Korean. I mean, it is part of their way of doing business. AndI think that is one of my reasons for success is that I enjoy a drink or two or three.
And, uh, the Koreans, that is part of the way they close deals; get to know each other. It's that networking of, uh, doing business with people, you know. And you like, you know, hanging with. So I have spent the…well, the first thing is that they, is they have this drink over there called Soju, which is, that's the number (one) alcoholic beverage. It's some kind of like, I think it's like a potato vodka or something. I don't think it's made outta rice, but not like 30 million pints are drunk every day. Uh, 30 million pints has, so you, well, that was, that was like 20 years ago. What does it taste like? A hundred million by now? For our viewers…
For our viewers, what does it taste like? Do they mix it with…? It's gonna kind of like a mixture of a flavor of, um, sake and a kind of a hard vodka. There's more of a punch to Soju than vodka. You don't mix it. I don't, I don't wanna stick on, on the soju too much, but you go to a Korean restaurant tomorrow this next week and order Soji; and you probably can get it at a Japanese restaurant too.
Soju is also drank in Japan. I'm just gonna say that.
Two interesting things: There's been a number of, of nights I, I remember in particular going out entertaining Samsung people and, uh, they would ask for the hundred dollars cigars. They would ask for the, the V S O P cognacs and we would drink lots of beer and so forth.
And there were numerous times where we wouldn't leave the bar until the sun's coming up. We're driving back to the hotel to change clothes, shower, and go out and do it again. Wow. Uh, it's not an uncommon scenario in, in Korea. Theres also a whole industry in Korea of people who drink a lot.
There is a place called: it's the Samsung City: and it's this huge complex outside of Seoul, which is like a city; it's a humongous factory by itself. And then, on the periphery of Samsung City, where let's say maybe 20,000 Samsung employees work, there's all these restaurants and bars. And I'd learned about this particular unique industry before that.
You know, this one, it's, let's just say it's eight o'clock… We started at four- by eight o'clock… Not really. Anybody can’t even hardly walk, you know? Wow. So what do we do? You call these companies where they come and they pick you up. They don't pick you up, they come, you give 'em the keys to your car and they drive you home.
20 some years ago, 30 years ago, this was a vibrant industry in Korea. It's like Uber before Uber for drunk driving. Pardon? It's like Uber or Lyft. Before Lyft. It's like the predecessor, but they're coming and taking your car home. You're not leaving your car three hours away at Samsung City. I get it.
Do they keep? You have to… No, I'm sure that might happen, but No, not normal. So, you know, interestingly enough, I don't want to go beyond, but what I really know, but I had a good friend who was a major supplier for Hyundai in the automotive industry. And, um, you know, there's, it's very common that you, you hear about some of the top officials in these major corporations having to go to prison for corruption, Korean prison.
A Korean? A Korean person breaking Korean law, going to a Korean prison? Yes, that's exactly it. And his statement to me was, is that, where else would they go? I don't know what. Call it corruption, but it's just kinda the way they do business maybe. But there's a lot of palm greasing, there's a lot of ‘kick under table’ type of activities and a lot of times it might include a government official.
But almost every year there would be big press about maybe a Hyundai official or a Daewoo official or, or somebody in one of these big companies, he's off to prison. Generally the word would be, he didn't necessarily do it, the criminal activity, but he's the fall guy. And as you become the fall guy, that raises you up in the echelons the hierarchy of the company.
So it's almost like if you want to become higher and higher up in a Korean corporation, you maybe need to take the fall and go spend two or three years in prison. Nice. And that's how you, that that's just kind of part of the system. There is a very unique and in interesting system in Korea on almost how everything works.
So, uh, tell of some of these big companies though… I think that's interesting cuz you've gone from rags to riches and some of the companies that you had mentioned and some of the business dealings. So yeah, I think that'd be interesting to tell a little bit about those big companies you dealt with and some of the interesting stories that go along with 'em.
Yeah. Or was that an interesting story? Did you go to jail? That's, oh, I've have you. Have you spent time in a Korean prison? ? That's a whole separate podcast, Mark. There's a lot, a lot spent, a lot of time. No, let me, and I'll say a lot of this, there was a real market point in history where things changed so much in Korea, and that was the ‘88 Olympics.
Oh course. It just seemed like very quiet, everything was super cheap. Everything was just sort of under inside and covered by that veil. The ‘88 Olympics came in Seoul, Korea. And that was like, was it Winter Olympics or Summer Olympics? The launching pad for them to go global and become known andsuccessful.
The ‘88- was it summer? Was it Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics? It was the summer. Summer Olympics. Yeah. They caught that bomber too, man. He was trying to blow up the place. Remember that guy? He was blowing up. I don't remember any bomber. There's that's just about every Olympics now, right? There's some things.
Somebody's trying to blow the Olympics up. You know, it's kinda like: remember when Evil Knievel tried to jump the Grand Canyon when you were a kid? And you're thinking, yeah, well how the hell… how the hell's he gonna jump the Grand Canyon? I mean, it's a big place, you know, and I was thinking, how does a guy blow up the Summer Olympics?
I mean, that's… it doesn't make any sense to me. But, so yeah, so somewhere, you know, what do they have…?Crazy, what people will do. You know what's interesting about the Olympics and like the world's fairs and stuff like that? I'm sure you, if you go to New York or if you fly into J…uh no, you fly into LaGuardia and you drive off LaGuardia, you can still see remnants of the, I don't know, the 19-something world's fair where they have all these relic structures and stuff like that.
And then I guess the last Olympics in China, they built these atomic structures.Right. And they're like abandoned now or something like that. I was wondering if you said it changed the direction of Korea? Do you think there's still any relics of stuff from the Olympics back in’ 88 that you can still see if you wanted to or anything like that?
I'm sure they're there. It's just that there's no place that has changed as much as Seoul Korea from being, you know...If we were out visit a company 20 minutes outside of town, it would almost be, you know, dilapidated, pothole filled two-lane roads. Now, there's a 12 lane highway and everything's just gone so massive in scale.
And, and Korea itself is, or not Korea, but Seoul itself, is separated by the Han River, a massive river. And it's… there's mountains all over it. So you're going through tunnels a lot. You're going around the mountain, which will be very steep cliffs and, uh, into the next part of town. I mean, it's just, it's a city of over 20 million people.
She's coming around the mountain when she comes. Anyway, lady, I got a question for you too. On this thing. I'm not familiar. Obviously in today's world, Kim Jong-Un is a global threat, right? And he's a North Korean, right? Like, so the South Koreans obviously have this entity to the north, and yet they have thrived.
Right? You had mentioned, and they're now thriving, sixth largest economy in the world. What, what is their government over there? I, I don't know. For our listeners, what is it? Is it a democratic? Is it de…, you know, there's different kinds of governments? So I'm, I'm wondering what put the, what put the seeds in place for them to be successful?
And what's the relationship with North Korea? I think it's strained. I think they try every politician who gets elected in Korea has a kind of a different approach; a hard line approach. Or, “let's embrace the brothers to the north.” You know, so many of the families in South Korea have relatives in the north, but North Korea is quite a different animal.
I mean, as far as what kind of government it has, as far as I would refer to it or describe it, it's a, uh, a communist dictator. Right. No, I'm talking about South Korea though, so I mean, well, no, South Korea's a democracy. Is it? So, I mean, they have free elections and everything else. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay. Yeah, I mean, it's… Asian democracies are,let’s say, somewhat different. And I'm not gonna claim to be an expert on the governmental system now in Korea, I know so many of the countries in Korea included, um, they were somewhat still run by the military when I first started going over there in the eighties.
Okay. Uh, martial law, like when I first started going to Taipei, Taipei and all of Kore…Taiwan was still under martial law and it was ruled by, uh, the military until finally they got to a point of stability enough to where they, uh, embraced and started to implement democracy. I gotcha. So, uh, yeah, and it's sad what's going on. And it's really sad that this young man,
Kim Jong-un, il whatever his exact name is, you know, he could have taken North Korea into a much more positive and world-embracing, uh, stance, vewpoint. But, he's turned it into some kind of you know, wild and crazy little…It'd be interesting to go there. Check that, wouldn't it?...pocket filling government for himself.
So, one interesting thing: back around 1990, I got a phone call from a representative of the CIA and I thought, “well, this is kind of weird, but okay.” This guy was based in St. Louis and I was in Springfield at that time, ‘91 maybe. And so, uh, this guy came down to the factory in Springfield, and we sat down in the conference room and he says, “Uh, you go to Korea a lot, don't you?”
“And you, uh, you visit a lot of, uh, Companies?”, and I'm like, “Well, I guess you know what I've been doing…” I'm not quite sure how you'd find all this out, but you know, I don't think there were that many American businessmen going over and calling on defense companies in Korea in the late eighties.
And so, probably not that hard to track. What I was up to. And, um, so I said, well, yeah, I, I, uh, but you know, “how can I help you?" I mean, South Korea, they're, they're allies of ours, and there's really, I can't see what I can do for you all. I mean, I don't think I know anything that you couldn't find out yourself.
And he said, “well, you might be very surprised. Well, they, you know, they might talk to you about certain things that they may not tell. You know, somebody in the government, especially a CIA agent, what do you what kind of information?” He says, “well, we would just like, For you to, uh, let us know, uh, what happens on your visits, what you talk about, uh, what they're talking about, what kind of projects they're working on.
And I'm, I'm like, you know, I, I don't, I don't know. Let me, uh, let me think about it. But you know, why do we need to, uh, find out what South Korea's doing is cuz they're our allies and, and he, and he kind of looks, looks cross table at me and he says we have to watch our allies very closely too. Yeah. So, Keep your friends close and your friend what closer?
That's it. Whatever. I almost had it there, didn't it? So anyhow, I said well let me, let me think about it. You get back to me and, uh, I don't know. We'll see if it makes any sense. Right. You know, cuz it seems a little bit, sort of eerie, almost. Did he offer anything? They'd have to be suddenly like working for the CIA and we never talked about any kind of a salary or anything because they never called me back.
They never called me back. They did approach me. Um, and what happened in that period was you're like, trons version of Chuck Barris, by God's sakes. You know, you ever, you ever heard of the Chuck Barris story? No. I don't. Lemme finish… Anyhow. There was a regime change in America. We went from being governed by the Bush Republican Party to Clinton.
I guess the Clinton establishment had no interest in what Bill Gentry was doing over in Korea. So, um, which was fine by me. Right. I don't know. I mean, I, I may not be here today if I, uh, cuz the Koreans might then start watching me if the Americans are watching me and they know what, you know, they've got a mole inside the CIA.
But, but anyhow, it was just very interesting how I was approached very seriously. It seemed to, uh, start gathering information for the studio. Well, listen, I want you to…Chuck Barris story and then sh you know, you know who Chuck Barris is, right? No. Who is he? Chuck Barris was the guy who was the, uh, creator of the Gong Show.
Remember Chuck Barris? I don't even know what the Gong Show is. I'm sorry. What are you talking about, man? When was the Gong Show? It was a show in the seventies where he'd have like, uh, was kind like… today they've got…what's that show? America's Got Talent or Britain Britain's got... Right. When it's all legitimate and you wined shit.
This was an as… Are you, are you serious? You've never heard of the gong joke? I, I maybe have heard of it, but I don't think I ever watched it. Okay. So it was back, I usually watching a little bit more in, you know, intelligent academic type of, well, this was more my speed, like, you know, pseudo r*****.
But anyway, so they'd have acts on there, right? They'd have Jamie Farr and they'd have, JP Morgan, who was a woman at the time, and then they'd have different celebrities and they'd have a big gong in the back. And these acts would come on, just, you know, uh, like, uh, it doesn't matter. You just played a guitar sing or, you know, tell comedy.
It was just, and you get 30, 40 seconds. And if your act is terrible, they hit the gong. And you get gonged and at the end of the thing, somebody wins like a hundred bucks. But anyway, the point being is, is that Chuck Barris was this huge television producer right back in his seventies.
He came up with I think The Dating Game and the Gong Show, Please. But, but behind the scenes, he claims he worked for the CIA and they've made a movie about this and stuff like that. He's on set doing his stuff, but then he would disappear for like two and three weeks and come back and he'd say he was on a mission over in, uh, Russia, killing people and stuff like that.
And he'd come and this is all, I mean, this is true. I'm serious. Hey look this up. So anyway, so that's why I said, well, you know, maybe I was that close. But you were like becoming the next electronics Chuck Barris man. So anyway, people will get the second thing I wanna talk about. Just a couple things and I'll get back to your stuff.
Do you think that the military buildup in South Korea has to do with their North Korean threat from the north, or is it just because of other threats that you think they they come of? I'm just curious if, I mean, if we had…If Canada was a communistic country and, you know, and threatening us? You know, but some just wonder what's life like Living there with a, with literally North Korea threatening you at every…you know, it never felt like there was a threat imminent every day.
Never be. Never felt like that. I mean, and I think especially with 50,000 American troops there, the largest base outside the United States, maybe maybe things would be different. And I still think there's a lot of Americans on the base outside of town now. Um, but I think there's also other interests that we throughout Asia, having that base there.
But the relationship with the American military and the Korean military is very it's very tight. You know, in some of the other countries it becomes strained. I know we had to move of a very large naval base in the Philippines, maybe 10 years back or so.
I think the relationship between South Korea and, and America and the military is very solid and everybody is, uh, in support of it. For the most part. I'm, you know, I'm sure there are people who are not. I mean, I will say that one time I went to Korea and there was a big demonstration and it was all over the American press on television.
Anti-American protests. Get your military out of Korea. And I was kind of worried at the time that, you know, hey, maybe my life might be threatened by being in Korea at this time. And I, and I called up our agent and he just laughed and he said, you know, it's, it's about 25 people down on at the university of Seoul.And it's nothing to worry about. We, we love you. Please come. I never saw any demonstrations or anything of that. And, um, I think the relationship between Korea and South Korea and America is probably one of the best there, there is on the planet that, at least that America has, is a solid ally. Would you say it's, that's wrong.
There could be all kinds of things going on behind the scene that I don't know about. Would you say it's one of your favorite places on the planet to go to? It has been. Absolutely. You know, it’s people? I love their hardworking ethic. Had a lot of great times and made and made a lot of money in Korea.
You know, a little bit, you know, we're talking about the past, but if you bring it to the future, I mean, or today, which would be the present K-pop. Are you familiar with that? I think it's incredibly well done and fun to watch, and K-pop has become really, really big in America, you know? Yes, I know that. I mean, like I said, cuz we're talking about Korea and stuff like that.
There's J-Pop and…Did you…? I was watching this New Year's Eve thing, and I'd never heard of these guys before, but they were highly entertaining, man. They could, oh yeah, jump around and I guess it's super popular over there. Oh, it's big. It's a big deal. It's a huge deal. It's a huge deal. Globally, they’ve…
This is in one of those cases where, here again, Korean hard work and their quality of some of the products they make, they become world renowned. Yeah. Hence, top industry's top economies in the world. Yeah. Gained them style. You know what I mean? Gained them style. That's true. , . You know, one of my first agents, distributors, probably of the five or six that we've had, maybe number three, it was also a gentleman named Mr.Kim.
Maybe it's the same guy. His associate was a Mr. Kim. And we were introduced to them from a Mr. Kim. Okay. (May) have been a Mr. Lee?This is, it's… it'd be almost being like, uh, in an Italian family dining room table in New York, Long Island. When you say, “uh, this is Tony. This is my cousin Tony. This is my other cousin, his name is Anthony. This is, uh, this is my other brother, Tony.” So everybody's name, “Mr. Kim.”
Exactly. You can just, you can just come into the room and say, Hey, Mr. Kim and everybody.
Oh, okay. Well this guy, uh, there was, you know, one time we were out driving through the streets and we're through some of the back alleys in soul, which there's a lot, uh, you know, back off the main streets and, uh, you know, we're always wearing suits back in those days, uh, you know, always up until maybe 10 years ago, everybody wore a, you know, like a two piece.
That's the IBM effect man. That's the IBM. We were driving, uh, I think we just finished lunch and we're, he comes up to this intersection and, I don't know, both cars, a car from our left up ahead and us. They, they banged into each other. Okay. So Kim gets out of the car and he kind of just sort of like, as a gentleman gets out of his car and he goes up and the other gentleman in the other car gets out and, and the next thing you know they're talking and then, then all of a sudden it's what they just start.
Each other. And then, and then they kinda straighten their ties and they… and he gets back in the car and I'm kind of like, ah, what was that all about? And he's like, ah, it's nothing, it's just, you know, it's the Korean negotiating. And it was just sort of so bizarre, so quick, so intense.
The Koreans are considered somewhat pugnacious. They're, they, they call 'em the Americans of the Orient, you know, very individualistic and ready for a fight. But anyhow, there was another time where we're driving and he, he said, “Bill, I spent a lot of time.” He doesn't speak good English, so he, he might have put it into way more broken English.
You should speak just like he's talked to you, speak. Just like he said, ah, Bobby Bill. Every time I do an accent, I sound German or Slavi. Have one accent and it's slavi. So let, uh, so he's, he says, “I spent a lot of time cuz every Korean man has to have do his military service. And we shared barracks and we shared all of our missions with the American military.”
So they were very much intertwined and co-working with each other in the days when he was in the military. So he said, “Bill, there's this one word that I just never could understand. And now that we've gotten to know each other a little bit better, I could never figure out what it was that this word really meant, because it seemed to be used all the time, and it means everything.”
And I said, “”Kim, what? You know Sure. What, what is that word? And he says, “it's f***.” You know, it's like everything that they talked about, we would use the word f*** in it. And it's like, I hate that f****** guy. Or, or like, you know, you're a total f***. or F*** me, or what the f***? That one chick?
I think that one lady… she's, you know… I see her over in that coffee shop. She is so f****** hot, man, I wanna f*** her. And it's like, they're constantly, the Americans are using this word, you know, let's go out and get f***** up. Oh, f*** you . F*** me. You f****** f***. What do you, it's just… and all I could say was, you know what, Kim?
F*** you. No. F*** Machine. It's so true that we have this word that we use for everything. Well, you are exactly…It's just f****** amazing culture. Sophisticated- really at our base route. Really f***** up. And do you think you could combine that word with the… I'm keep gonna keep f****** interrupting, man.
Will you shut the f*** up for a second? Finally, you. If you use that word in conjunction with the other word that I think is, these may be the two most useful words. Right? Because you can, I know what's coming. I know. No, you don't. Shut the f*** up in America, right? You can say anything and people know if you're American. At least grew up in America, you can unless you're completely remote or something like that.
But you can use the term f*** and shit in any sentence and describe anything in America. Right. Well, lemme just say, in Korea we covered this, we talked about it, and he said, We can use the word f******, but nobody “shit” is a really bad word over there is it. Don't talk about sh… you don't talk shit to anybody.
So, if you said, “This Kim Shea tastes like shit,” it would, be-your career in Korea's over. And the Korean guy was saying, it's f****** bad. Bill. What the f***, man? Is that what he said? Yeah. Hey, I got some shit to do. Yeah, I know. Mark, thank you so much again for being my, uh, comrade and crime here, and I'm your muse man.
This is what I am. Right. I'm your… You're actually, you're a CIA agent and you guys are still trying to check up on me. I'm Bill's Rub Muse. You know, that would be, yeah, that would be. Well, I, um, you know, there was this, this whole conversation about Korea only gets me up to like 1995, ‘97. In the last 20 some years, I've had a whole ‘nother, uh, set of… When did you…from Korea? And I know you could edit all that other stuff, but from Korea to the point where you decided that you wanted to become Asian?
And I really believe in my heart of hearts, but look at you. Dr. Slice and Dice right there. Even though you were born, I, you were born in California, moved to Springfield, I believe If somebody took your DNA after all your international trail travels, I think that somehow you have been recombined and then you're part Asian in some ways.
Oh, no, there's no question. I might be more than half Asian anymore. Really? At least my viewpoint on life and my soul. Yeah. I'm reading a book right now about how important the soul is, and we don't take care of our soul. And there's a disconnect that I still feel. I think I talked about it in the last podcast a little bit.
Uh, there's a disconnect I have with Americans. Because I have, through 25 years plus plus, picked up very many of the customs and the ways of thinking of the Asian. So I have very much, maybe not an Asian look, but I have a Asian…a big part of my soul is now Asian sensei, uh, Grasshopper,
I will leave you, hold on, open up your hand for a sec. Put your hand up in that thing. Hold on. I just snatched the pebble from your hand. So. Well actually the pebble was long gone before I raised it. You can't even see. You cannot. The pebble is in the other hand. That's true. It's much… We have much to learn.
I can't believe you know about Kung Fu. But you don't know about the Gong Show. I mean, it's like a different thing. I'm glad I don't know about the Gong Show. That is a twisted story, and I think there's, you should look that. Promise me you'll look that up just to tell you that I was like Donald Trump before there was Trump Trumponomics or whatever.
All right, bye. Gotta go. I'll catch you later. You. See you later.