by Dr. Iain
Corness
‘Phil’
Webb is a man who managed to find his true calling in life. He found a
business where he said, "You could earn what you were worth."
Not many of us have been that fortunate. He has also been very busy all
his life with many interests, much more than most of us. He has
additionally met many people who for most of us are only names - for
example, how many of us can say that they got Lex (Tarzan) Barker to gold
plate the hinges on your car! People like this have to be interesting.
Phil was born in Macon, Georgia in the US. Macon, Phil
assured me, was now the Cherry Blossom capital of the world and the home
of Little Richard, James Brown and Eartha Kitt (and B. Phillip Webb Jnr.).
Phil’s father was a laundryman and his mother a
waitress, so there was nothing in the immediate family history to predict
where this young man was going to go. He dropped out of school when he was
17 and applied to join the navy - but flunked the exam. Phil was not one
to become depressed at this. He applied to join the army! Eventually he
was accepted and was assigned to the position of a military policeman.
After 14 days furlough he was sent to Korea. Fortunately the war was over
and he spent 18 months guarding suspicious holes in the ground. These were
classified as "secret" and Phil still does not know what the
military personnel really did down those holes. I also got the impression
that these days he really doesn’t care.
After discharge he returned to Macon and tried a few
jobs, none of which paid much, until he stumbled across selling
encyclopaedias. While other salesmen were selling one set a week, Phil was
selling five sets a day.
However, he did not consider that this would be a
career. Phil wanted to make his name as a singer, having sung in pubs and
clubs since he was 16 years old, so took his song books and moved to
California. He survived, complete with platinum hair and flamboyant
clothes, even becoming a regular act at the famous Whisky A Go Go, the
venue where Johnny Rivers got his start. While Phil didn’t really make
the ‘big time’ he became friendly with Glen Campbell and did get a
recording contract through him. It was for a two song contract and the 45
was pressed and distributed. "I think I got less than $40 from the
sales," said Phil. Glen Campbell came to the rescue again and got
Phil another record contract, but this never came to anything either.
"I just didn’t have enough ability to sustain that career,"
said Phil.
So he drifted into sales again, selling newspaper
subscriptions. This was a career that he did have the ability to sustain.
And paid well. However, he felt that he needed a profession and decided
that he should go to law school. This was not to be a case of just lining
up at the cloistered halls of academia, there was the small problem of not
finishing high school. Almost a year of night school got him the entry
credits required, and he entered university. During this time he was still
selling newspaper subscriptions as the means to pay his way.
He had not been in law school very long when he began
to hear that new graduates could expect to make between $12,000 and
$15,000 a year. At that stage, Phil was making $1,000 a week selling
newspapers on straight commission, working only four to five hours a day.
It was a no-brainer. Phil left university and applied himself to the
newspaper business.
He worked for the same company for the next 38 years.
No salary, commissions only. No retirement benefits, "not even a
plaque," said Phil, but not said with regrets. He thoroughly enjoyed
his time, and enjoyed his money too. "It was everything I ever
wanted," said Phil. "You could earn what you were worth."
He started several small businesses on the side, as
super salesmen often do. Frozen chickens, used cars, art galleries -
anything where he could see that you could buy cheaply somewhere and sell
profitably somewhere else. He even did up a Rolls Royce, and decided to
have the hinges gold plated, and this was when he met Lex Barker, who had
given up swinging through the trees to open a gold plating business. He
sold the Rolls at a profit. Naturally. Even though he had to sell the car
to a chap who wanted to trade some land, giving the land to a dentist
looking to buy some dirt, who then gave him a 38 foot boat in return. I
did not ask what happened to the boat!
One day he met a man in the jewelry business who was to
become the catalyst in Phil’s arrival in the Kingdom. They got on well
and kept in touch over the years. His friend decided to move to Bangkok,
saying to Phil, "If you ever come to visit me, you’ll never go
back."
When Phil decided it was time to hang up his order
book, he rang his friend to say he had just bought a one-way ticket to
Thailand. "If it’s as great as you say it is, then I’m
staying."
That was 20 months ago, and he has no regrets. He is
deeply involved in the Jomtien-Pattaya Rotary Club and its charity
projects. He also has a few of his own, such as feeding stray dogs, which
he does daily, and taking food and fresh water to some of the slum
encampments for the extremely disadvantaged.
Phil Webb, the super salesman, is certainly well settled here. He is
writing poetry and songs, and a novel. He has rekindled his own
spirituality and is looking forward to being baptized. "It’s time
for His will, not mine," said Phil simply.
