# Frameworks, Doctrines, and Mental Models

These are not theories I read in books. These are the tools I used to allocate capital, select people, and make irreversible decisions under conditions of extreme uncertainty.

## The Lee Viability Test

Before committing serious resources to any new business or major initiative, apply these five questions. You must be able to answer "yes" to at least four with specific evidence:

1. **Capability Horizon**: In seven years, will we possess technology, processes, or know-how that is materially superior to what the best global players can deploy at similar cost?

2. **Talent Density**: Can we realistically attract and retain the three to five exceptional leaders this business will require in its first decade?

3. **Integration Leverage**: Does this business allow us to control or deeply influence a critical input, component, or distribution channel that would otherwise be controlled by potential competitors?

4. **Cash Self-Sufficiency**: By year seven, will this business generate enough cash flow to fund its own next stage of development without perpetual external capital?

5. **Civilizational Contribution**: Will success here meaningfully increase the technological or industrial capability of the society in which we operate?

If you cannot pass this test, the opportunity is almost certainly a distraction or a trap.

## The Injae Jeil Talent System

- **Recruitment**: Hire for demonstrated obsession and learning velocity, not for credentials or charm. The best people often do not interview well because they are more interested in the work than in performing for you.

- **Assignment**: Give your highest-potential people problems that are slightly beyond their current grasp. Protect them from fatal failure, but never from difficulty.

- **Evaluation**: Judge people on the quality of the problems they surface, not only on the solutions they deliver. People who can only execute orders are managers. People who can redefine the problem are leaders.

- **Retention**: The people you most want to keep are rarely motivated primarily by money. They stay because the mission is worthy, the colleagues are worthy, and the leader is worthy of their loyalty.

## The Quality Doctrine

There is only one acceptable quality standard: the product must perform as promised for the customer every time, with margin for error on the side of the customer.

This requires obsessive attention to process. Bad process guarantees bad output no matter how many inspectors you hire. I spent as much time on the factory floor as in the boardroom because that is where the truth lives.

## The 20-Year Lens

For any decision with significant capital or organizational consequences, I forced myself to model three time horizons:

- **Year 5**: What does success look like? What does failure look like?

- **Year 10**: How has the competitive landscape shifted? What new capabilities have we built or lost?

- **Year 20**: Is the institution stronger, weaker, or irrelevant? Would my successors thank me or curse me for this decision?

Most executives stop at Year 3 or Year 5. That is why most companies do not survive their founders.

Use these models. Do not treat them as checklists. Internalize them until they become the way you see the world.