Jeff Wobig is a former US Navy SEAL sniper and member of the elite Navy SEAL Team 5, as well as Navy SEAL Team 7. Jeff is a skilled leader and an accomplished entrepreneur.
Jeff “Biggs” Wobig is also the co-founder and director of Global Accuracy/CTS Solutions. The company has offered tactical advising and security consulting to the United States Government on highly classified projects. Global Accuracy/CTS Solutions has expanded its services to the private sector due to the high demand from VIP clients.
Mr. Wobig was involved in the development of the Remington Custom Shop SIXSITE edition rifle. Jeff won the Maximum Warrior competition by Maxim Magazine and “Best of the Best” Special Ops, representing the US Navy and the SEAL community.
Jeff “Biggs” Wobig has been featured on TV shows such as “Battleground: Rhino Wars,” which debuted on Animal Planet. Jeff, along with other Navy SEALs and a Green Beret, made a substantial impact during this project, taking down seven crime syndicates and imparting essential skills to their South African counterparts.
Below are some insights from Jeff “Biggs” Wobig. Enjoy!
What is your definition of success?
I am under the assumption that failure is impossible as long as you do not quit. My definition of success is constant progress. If you can do something to better yourself daily, then you are successful. As long as you can always persevere, as long as you can still continue to find some way to become more, that’s it.
When did you consider yourself a success?
I believe that my success ebbs and flows. I can’t live on yesterday. I have to live for today and the future. There have been times I may have been perceived as a success, but I was receding from a successful position. I would say that I’ve had the ability to be successful since I came into this world. I have dominated portions of my life, and I’ve stooped in a couple of areas, taking two steps back and one step forward at certain times.
Self-analyzing helps out: knowing where I’m at, knowing where I want to go, setting my goals, and achieving those goals. When I do that, or I’m working towards a goal, I feel as if I’m successful. But, I have to have a goal first. I have to have a mission. So, my challenges are always keeping myself goal-oriented and shooting for the stars.
What steps do you take daily to improve?
I’m afraid of routine. Routine kind of freaks me out a little bit. At the same time, I implement a little bit of routine just to make sure that I’m living a healthy and happy life. My steps to improve daily focus on my overall happiness and the happiness of those that I love. How I can make that happen dictates what I do daily to improve. My goal at this point in my life is the pursuit of happiness. I think that every individual has a different definition of happiness and success. That’s just mine.
When I wake up, I like to thank God, say a prayer, and be grateful. I do a breathing exercise (where I re-oxygenate my brain), drink some water, and work out immediately within the first two minutes of getting out of bed. I like to do something that makes me sweat, and that’s it. It doesn’t have to be horrible.
The thing about my personality is that I’m kind of like a freight train. It takes me a lot to get started, but once I’m going, it takes a lot to get me to stop. So, if I can just get started in the morning, I have a great day. If I don’t get started in the morning, then my whole day suffers because of it. Starting right is essential!
Building a good foundation in your life is essential. Build a good foundation every day. There are different foundations. You create a life foundation, a year foundation, a month foundation, and a day foundation. Then you can build an hour foundation. Work off of that to get through one minute of your life. It’s not just getting through, but it’s dominating every minute of your life that counts.
It’s easy to get through, but it’s essential to want to dominate because that’s your goal. Then you ask yourself, “Do I dominate life?” I choose what domination of my life means. It’s not a bad term. It means I’m willing to dominate my goal for that day. Other things that I do are to improve or just self-analyze. I’m honest with myself because I know when I’m not operating at 100 percent. Rarely ever am I actually rolling out at 100 percent, but if I can get up in the 90s or even the 80s, that’s an awesome day.
Have a plan. The Teams say, “Plan your dive, dive your plan.” That’s kind of how I try to do it.
What have you recognized as your greatest strengths, and how have they impacted your success?
I have been blessed with physical strengths, but I don’t rely on them as heavily as I do my mental strength. My most considerable strengths come from stubbornness and always wanting to be an outsider. I’ve always wanted to be on the outside. I’ve never wanted to be normal.
I never wanted to hang out with the flock. I’ve always been a sheepdog on the outside of the flock. That came to me naturally from a very young age. I didn’t identify with all the people around me. I liked them, enjoyed them, and wanted to be friends with them, but I just knew we were different. At school, I knew that some of my teachers were living their dream, and some of them were miserable at their job. I saw that at an early age and realized that I don’t want to be miserable in life, no matter what I do.
Foresight has been a considerable strength of mine. I like to gain knowledge and retain wisdom.
The ability to manage stress is also a strength of mine. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’ve never seen “freaking out” work out well for anybody. You’re never going to be able to go back in time. If something happened, you’re not gonna’ be able to change it. So figure it out, but “freaking out” is not going to help anything. Remain cool, calm, and collected. Take care of business.
I’d say another strength of mine: I love ferociously. I love God fiercely, and I love my family and my friends. That’s the motivation that gets you up when you don’t want to get up. When you have nothing else to drive for, you drive for others. We can live with our own pain, but it’s hard to live with other people’s pain. I like to keep my family and friends out of pain. That’s a motivator for me. I’ll do anything I can to ensure that the people around me are living a good life, living a happy life, and feeling loved, because they are.
Tell me about a weakness or personal character flaw, and what you’re doing to overcome it?
I could go on and on about weaknesses. I don’t like to call them weaknesses as much as things that I would personally like to change. Some shortcomings could be other people’s strengths. Some of my character flaws are considered a weakness. My weaknesses shouldn’t be blanketed across everybody’s character, because everybody’s different.
I have an administrative weakness: I shouldn’t be around paperwork. I don’t do well with it since I’m full-fire and not a lot of water. But God did something for me early on. He paired me with a wife who has a lot in common with me, but we’re the exact opposite in some areas. One of them is that she’s administratively powerful. I’m driven. That completes our personality profile and puts us in a position where we can work together as entrepreneurs. It helps us to run businesses because I need a personality that enjoys paperwork or that can do it. I shut down if it seems mundane and boring. It looks like a waste of time to me. That’s my weakness.
I work on trying to be the best me I can be. Life can get in the way of being in a good mood or making the best decisions. Those decisions being ones that make you happier and make the people around you happy. I’ve made plenty of choices that don’t do either of those. That’s a weakness. We should always try to bring positivity into the world and leave the negativity out. I’ve been working on that goal for a long time, but I still slip. I think we all do and always will. We’re not perfect, but that’s something I would like to overcome daily.
How do you make important decisions?
I am very analytical, so I like to crunch the numbers. I would consider that the strength of seeing the big picture, looking at the full spectrum of the problem, and finding a full-spectrum solution. Ultimately, the most significant work successes that I’ve had came from being a problem solver. That’s probably my reputation at this point. I’m known as an effective problem solver. A lot of that comes from my time in the Teams, where there’s never a problem you can’t circumvent. “No” is not an answer. You never quit. There’s always a solution. It takes a little bit of work, and you have to find it, but there is a solution.
Going back to the original question, it depends on what that important decision entails. If it’s a financial decision, then it’s about the numbers. It’s about whether the juice is worth the squeeze. It’s that simple. If it’s a personal decision, then it’s a lot harder. It involves the heart and emotions, and they are a lot harder to deal with than numbers and laws.
Was there a pivotal moment that set you on the path to where you are now?
If there was one pivotal moment that set me on the path to where I am now, it was becoming a US Navy SEAL. It was completing the training and putting in the work upfront. I say that to people in business all the time. When you put the work in upfront, it will pay dividends on the backside. That’s what I have personally seen in everything I’ve done.
It could be a job: You go to college first, getting your degree, and understand the trade that you’re going into, or the military sets you on that path. It could be raising children right, where you’re putting in all the hard work upfront so that they become good adults. That’s what BUD/S was for me, a lot of hard work upfront. It set me on a path where I could know who I was and what I was capable of because I put myself through the test. It’s not that I didn’t know before, but I confirmed it. Sometimes we need that self-affirmation.
If you wanted to pinpoint one moment in my professional career, I would say it was this: I was raised in an extremely loving home that did not put an emphasis on money. The perception of our community may have been that we were in poverty. The worldly view may have seen us as impoverished, but I know that I was loved. That worldly view can hang with you. When you go to a public school in a small town, there’s a division of the “have’s” and “have-not’s.” We were in the latter group, and I didn’t appreciate people trying to tell me my capabilities because of my parents’ desired lifestyle.
I decided when I was very young that nobody could tell me what to do or what not to do in this life. I knew I was a good person. I knew I had a good soul. Then I knew that nobody could tell me what I can and can’t do. Plenty of them tried, and I still can hear their voices in my head when they say, “You’re gonna’ be nothing. You’re going to go to prison when you grow up.”
I was at a funeral in my Navy blues, with my Trident and my awards on, which is rare for us to wear. Those are usually only for a funeral, but it was for a local man that was in the Navy and passed away. A very close family friend and an elderly woman came up to me and started shaking my hand. Then everybody was excited to shake my hand and thank me for my service, which I appreciated. A woman came up and said, “You know, I’m very proud of you. I thought you were going to prison.” That made me pretty mad. It’s one of the rudest things anybody has ever said to me. I didn’t want to talk to her anymore.
She said, “Do you know who I am?” I said, “No, I don’t.” She said, “I knew you when you were in elementary school.” She wasn’t a great person. She wasn’t a great person because I remember her trying to steal my dreams. I know that as an adult now. She came back and tried to buddy-up with me, and I didn’t appreciate it. Yet she was one of the driving factors for why I wanted to succeed. I guess I can thank her for that.
That’s one of those things I tell my children. There are dream thieves everywhere, but nobody can steal your dreams if you don’t let them. As far as pivotal moments go that set me on my path, there were plenty of them. I would say that a lot of it came from the negativity I received from our social status as a child. I didn’t want to be stuck there for life. I knew my family was good people. Some of the kids that were given preferential treatment didn’t have good parents. They weren’t overachievers. They were getting something for nothing.
Sometimes people say, “Fake it till you make it.” I’m okay with that. To a certain extent, you can fake it till you make it. But at some point, you’re just a fake. Make sure you make it at some point. I never want to be a fake. I’ve always wanted to be authentic, genuine, and real. Those are some goals I have.
We homeschool our children. My wife talks about how if you send your kids to school, their peers tell them what they’re going to be in life. It’s true. If you’re a witty little kid or an outspoken extrovert versus an introverted kid, then you get to tell the introverts what they’re going to be. That’s not right. They’re talented and gifted in different ways. In a setting like that, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, and that’s not how it should be. I like the quote from Abraham Lincoln,
“It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
You know what, that just doesn’t apply to elementary school children or grade school. At a young age, I was able to identify that “Hey, this is backward, and I don’t have to listen to this.” I realized that I could be whoever I want to be, and nobody can tell me otherwise.
Moving through high school, everybody just gets to tell you what they’re going to be. Then they get to identify as that profession. They say, “I’m going to be a professional basketball player” even though you and I know they were average (at best) at a small school in Colorado. You’d say, “Well, that’s probably not going to happen…” I still think that’s a slim chance, right? We’re gonna’ call it really really slim. Maybe it’s about the same odds as the “goo, to the zoo, to you theory” (theory of evolution), you know?
Anyway, not to diverge. I guess I was getting at this point: Even in high school, kids were saying, “I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that,” but I was still realistic. I didn’t want to steal something that I hadn’t earned yet. I didn’t say I was gonna’ be a NAVY Seal. I said, “I’m going to go to SEAL training. I would like to be a Navy SEAL. That’s my dream. That’s my goal. I want to be a Navy SEAL.” It hadn’t been determined yet, right? And it just helps you to work hard for that goal.
Don’t claim your trophy before you earn it, or else you’ll stop working for it. It’s perceived success, and you almost believe your lie. At some point, that’s dangerous. If you start believing your own lie, you’ll stop working towards the truth. You’ll be miserable in that as well. Work has almost become a bad word in our society. Work is healthy. It’s what we’re supposed to do. I like to think of the Seven Dwarfs and how they’re just happy. They’re delighted to whistle as they go to work every day. That’s what we should all be doing.
Find something you love to do, and do it. If you don’t love to work, it’s because you haven’t given it a shot. Change your habits! For three weeks straight, get up early, work your butt off all day and see if your life improves. See if you’re happier. If you’re not pursuing happiness, then what the heck are you doing? If you want to be miserable, be miserable somewhere else because I don’t want to hear your negativity anyway.
Are there any books you’ve read more than once? Why?
Yeah, there are a couple of books I’ve read more than once. Most of them are instructional. I’ll read books on shooting. I’m a long-range shooting instructor and have a passion for long-range shooting. I’m debatably okay at it. [Editor’s Note: We mentioned earlier that Jeff won the Maximum Warrior competition by Maxim Magazine and “Best of the Best” Special Ops, representing the US Navy and the SEAL community.]
There are different stages in life that I’ve gone through. I went through a phase of preparation, so I read a particular book two or three times while overseas. It was a really neat story about prepping and fighting for the Union. That was interesting to me at the time, probably ten years ago.
There are some financial books that I’ve read a couple of times. I’ve read Rich Dad Poor Dad a few times; I thought that was an excellent book. Robert Kiyosaki wrote that. I’ve read some inspirational books. I’ve also read some Team guys’ books, which I try not to read very much. A couple of my friends have written books on their experiences in the Teams, and I’ll read through them a couple of times to be sure I’m giving them solid feedback on their material.
Tell me about a difficult commitment you’ve made, and would you make it again?
Three main commitments that I’ve made were my commitment to God, my commitment to my wife, and my commitment to the US while serving in the US Navy. As far as the most significant commitments, I wouldn’t change any of them. They’ve all put a lot of value in my life.
What character traits do you value most in others?
I think loyalty is the most important trait and the first to be overlooked. Nobody appreciates loyalty as they should. That’s the first thing to be forgotten. It’s tough since the people that are most loyal to you are often the easiest to hurt. You know there are limited repercussions, or you assume that there are limited repercussions because that person has been so loyal and so kind to you. It’s an easier solution sometimes for CEOs to dump the loyal guy for the bottom line. I think that’s a mistake. You can’t replace loyalty, and you can’t buy loyalty. That’s important.
I think integrity is also essential. Honesty, humility, all of those are fundamental to me. A balance of good traits is important, as well. You can’t just be a good person or a good friend. You can’t just be super loyal. You can’t just be super honest. You need to have a couple of good traits behind you if you want to be a good person.
Lastly, I would say morality. I want somebody who’s moral. That’s important because if you can’t hold to your moral compass, how will I ever trust you? Trust is important.
How do you push through your worst times?
Never give up, man! Quitting is never an option, ever. You have to put that in your mind! I can relate to not quitting, going through BUD/S where the attrition rate is 80%. It’s very tough. If you tell yourself quitting is an option, you’re going to quit. If you give yourself an out, you’re gonna’ take the out. The simple solution to that is never to give yourself an out. If you want to get something done, say, “I will get that done, and I will not stop until it’s done.” Just embrace the suck and go for it.
You know that there’s going to be brighter skies. The worst-case scenario is, you die, and that can’t be the worst-case scenario because if you’re a firm believer in Jesus Christ, you’re going to a better place. So stop worrying, be happy. How do I push through the worst times? Of course, I have bad times, but I guess I also rely on my past experiences. I’ve been through some tough times. I believe everybody has.
Life is hard for everybody. So if you can look back at something, either voluntary or involuntary, that was tough on you; maybe you thought, “Man, the world is ending. It’s over. I just want to die. I just don’t want to be here anymore. This is horrible. I don’t want to be in this situation.” Whatever that horrible, rock-bottom feeling you had was, you know that it was temporary and you got through it. I look back at those moments and say, “Man, that was miserable.”
If a friend dies or gets killed, it’s powerfully emotional. I can only imagine being divorced or losing loved ones. Whatever the worst-case scenario is, if you can think about that or think about how you got through a very negative situation, odds are you’ll get through this one. That’s part of dealing with stress, knowing you only have control over so many things. The only time you hit your knees is to pray. Even if you get knocked to your knees, get right back up.
It’s just one step at a time and one second at a time. When I was going through BUD/S, there were times when one more day was too much. One more hour? Sometimes one more hour’s too much. One more minute? Sometimes every second was miserable. But in the time it took me to say “one more second,” I was already three seconds in. I only had to say that 20 times to get me to a minute.
Usually, within a couple of minutes, we were back up out of the water on our feet and running again. Our minds were changing. You can break it down incrementally, to the smallest step possible. You can take it one second at a time until you build up enough tenacity to push yourself to a minute. Push yourself to 5 minutes, 10 minutes, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a decade, a life.
What keeps you awake at night?
I don’t stress, but I don’t sleep well. That’s an issue that I’m working to fix. I don’t have PTSD. I don’t have any issues with the things I’ve done in war. I just have trouble shutting my mind off. So I would say what keeps me awake at night would only be a busy mind and continuously wanting to solve problems. I’m a problem solver, so I’m always searching for those solutions. I believe that going to sleep with a thoughtful mind helps you to wake up with solutions. You know, in your subconscious, you’re working at finding the solution to that problem.
Your brain is a fantastic tool. We were created amazingly. Let that thing work for you. The problem is, sometimes I try to overload it before I go to sleep. I’m so excited to get up and find a solution or continue working. I would say that it’s not cool not to sleep. I’m taking measures to sleep as much as possible. It’s a health concern at this point, not sleeping enough. It’s not right; that’s not good. So I would say that sleep habits are what keep me up at night. I just need better sleep, and that’s something that we can control. That’s a problem I can solve.
What inspires you?
Oh man, inspiring people inspire me. God inspires me. The world inspires me. Nature inspires me. The high that you get from doing good in this world inspires me. I love seeing the joy on other people, whether it be men, women, or children; it’s just beautiful to see joy. That inspires me. That’s what drives me to make money, the ability to gift, and whatever those gifts are, which aren’t always financial gifts. I’m not saying you have to have money to give gifts. I’m saying that’s the different levels of gifting that I can apply, whether it’s buying a piece of land where my kids can go out and play, or buying a bicycle for a kid to play on, or tithing, or whatever. That’s what inspires me. As far as finances go, it’s happiness. Happiness inspires me.
I always say two things drive: desperation or inspiration. I would rather be inspired than desperate. Look at what you want. Look at what you need. Understand the difference. Once you have what you need, strive to succeed continually. Continually progress until you have what you want. As long as you have what you need (the basics of food, water, and shelter), you can focus on what inspires you.
I’m a blessed person. So I look at my giftings, and I don’t want to take them for granted. I don’t want to abuse this wonderful place that we live in and not enjoy what was created for us to enjoy and have a wonderful time. Knowing that I was put here by a loving God that wants me to have fun and wants me to enjoy myself and be happy inspires me. If I’m not happy, I’m letting Him down, and that’s letting me down and letting my family down. That’s disappointing, and I don’t want to be a disappointment.
How do you manage and prioritize opportunities?
I will take on the opportunity that I am best prepared for first. I need to analyze how fast I can become prepared for that opportunity. That’s a secret of success: you don’t wait for an opportunity to prepare yourself for it. You prepare yourself for the opportunity, so when it presents itself, you’re ready to go. Know your gifts and your strengths and your weaknesses. Know if it’s something that fits your abilities, or if it’s something you’re forcing yourself into for financial gain or pride.
I manage my priorities by what I’m capable of doing, my desire to get it done, and the preparation I put in on the front side.
I’m not saying if an opportunity arises that you can’t prepare for it or not do it, I’m saying be ready for it. If you wanted to be an actor, you don’t just walk around the streets of Hollywood until some producer or some casting agent says, “Hey, I think you’d be great in a movie!” If that happens, and you truly wanted to be an actor, I would hope you had gone to some acting school before that, and you’re ready to be an actor.
If you want to be a Navy SEAL, don’t show up fat and out of shape friggin’ saying, “Oh, I’ll run tomorrow.” You need to be running a couple of years out in front of that, getting ready, preparing yourself. When the Navy calls up and says, “Hey, you’re in. Let’s go. You’ve got BUD/S class coming up in six months.” Well, you better be ready. You don’t friggin’ wait till the last minute to prepare yourself.
So how do I manage and prioritize opportunities? If it’s financial, I crunch the numbers. Is the juice worth the squeeze? What is the end-state of that opportunity? Is it a true opportunity? Is it a blessing, or is it a curse in disguise? Sometimes the best opportunities, or what appears to be the best opportunities, can be the most damaging thing that you can put your business through. My personal quote is,
“You only know what you’ve experienced, everything else you’ve been taught.”
I only know what I’ve experienced. A lot of my decision making comes from the experiences that I’ve had, and personal experiences that I know to be a fact in this life. I know people more than I know opportunities. If I sense something is wrong with the sell or the spiel, if it looks too good to be true, usually it is. There’s a lot of truth to that. So I’m able to look at something full-spectrum and know if it’s good for my business, family, friends, or goals.
People say, “If someone needs your help, you help them.” I agree to a certain extent. I’m not trying to sound like a hardened soul, but this is important for anybody who’s growing in business and growing in finance, especially when you’ve come from nothing. You understand the pain that can come from not having any kind of financial support, right? The worst thing you can do when you’re first starting to bring in revenue is to be what I would call a “financial martyr.”
A “financial martyr” is a guy who makes his first 100 grand and buys his mom a $50,000 car. Is he a wonderful person? One hundred percent. Does he have a good heart? One hundred percent! He’s got a great heart, and he’s a good friend. You probably want to be friends with that guy. He sounds like a great guy, but is he gonna’ continue to help people? Probably not, because he’s gonna’ be broke. There’s also a fine line between not being a “financial martyr” and being greedy. There’s a difference. Don’t cripple yourself to heal another.
As a protector and as a father, I can tell you that I’ll fight the fight. Don’t worry; I’m there. I’ll fight the fight, but I’ve got to be able to fight. I’ve got to be able to stay in the fight. So I have to keep myself healthy. I don’t know if I’d call it a secret, but it doesn’t seem to be common knowledge. A lot of good people don’t ever bankroll anything because they try to save one life instead of 1,000. I’m not saying that if your kid needs a hospital bill paid, you don’t do whatever it takes. Sometimes that one life is the most important thing to you. It’s not always a numbers game.
Right now, if my financial knees got knocked out from under me, I’m okay. I have a loving wife and loving children. We’ll live out in the middle of the forest, and I’ll start over from nothing. It’s really cool to find out how to make money because nobody can take that away from you. You can take all my money from me, but you cannot take away my ability to make more. Once you find the “secret sauce,” you can always use it again. That’s freedom, right?
I feel like I’m kind of going off on tangents. The simple answer to the question of how do you manage and prioritize your opportunities is this: Analyze the opportunity. What’s the most bang for the buck? What has the most substantial return for the smallest investment? There are so many variables. We could be here all day talking about them, but that’s just something that you have to learn from personal experience or a mentor’s experiences to help you make that decision.
What advice would you give to your 18-year-old self?
To be honest with you, if I could tell my 18-year-old self (or any 18-year-old) how to live life, that would be, “Live life to the fullest. Enjoy every day because it’s fun! Be a good person.” That would be an extremely important thing. Just be a good person. Everybody knows what a good person is. Just do that. Be kind, but not weak. Be loving, be strong.
As far as business goes, I would say the same thing: “Put in the hard work upfront. Work hard. Enjoy working.” On a more serious note, I would say that it’s not all about business. It’s not all about money. Life is better than that, and it can end in a split second. So I would say that you should always let the people that mean the most to you, know how much they mean to you, and how much you love them. Let them know you care about them and that you appreciate them.
Going back to talk to the 18-year-old me and knowing what I was going to go through in my 20’s as a Navy SEAL fighting in the war on terror, I would say, “Hang on. It’s a wild ride.” I think life’s a wild ride, but it’s enjoyable.
I would say, “There is a Creator, 100% guaranteed – and He loves you!” I would tell the younger me to rely on prayer more. I think that would help me out a lot with some of the difficulties I had.
While I was in the Navy, I didn’t have a care in the world about money. I didn’t figure I would ever live to see 30, so why save money? You know, it might have helped me out financially a bit, but maybe it kept me hungry. That goes back into that “don’t be a financial martyr.” I can speak to that on some level of experience because I didn’t mind draining my account every two weeks. I got paid every 14 days, and every 15th day I was broke. So I didn’t have the best financial literacy at the time, but I had a good time. I don’t know that I would change any of that.
“Give open-heartedly.” That was something I had to learn later. Being in the Navy, I didn’t have a lot to give as far as money went. I have always been a gifter. I always liked to give gifts. Some people are like that, and some people aren’t. It’s just something I do. I love to give. It makes me feel good. I would probably tell my 18-year-old self just to give it all away.