Jason Jarvis

When I left my last position at a big law firm, a partner I worked with gave me some advice that I thought was corny at the time:  find something that you love to do.  I explored many ventures, and after awhile, I finally realized the value of that advice.  For me, doing something I loved meant finding my passion and making the highest use of my skills and talents.  So, I thought back over of all my years as a professional to find what it was that I did best and enjoyed the most.  I realized that my passion was teaching and helping people.  It didn't matter whether they were clients, peers, juniors, seniors, students, or anyone else.  The satisfaction for me was the same.  Now that I'd identified my passion, I had to figure out how to turn that passion into a career.  A singular moment sparked the light bulb that lead to the creation of Critical Confidence. 

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When I was a second year associate at Kirkland & Ellis, I was working with a third year associate on a matter.  She tasked me with reviewing and commenting on a memo written by a new first year associate.  The memo was in bad shape, and she was very concerned that the volume of comments that needed to be returned would crush this first year's confidence.  By this time, I had developed my skills in delivering difficult feedback and told her there was no problem.  When I sent the comments back to the First Year, she immediately added me on LinkedIn and said "Oh my god. Can you teach me how to do that?"  That's when everything came pouring back.  Juniors told me that I delivered feedback better than anyone else.  Seniors respected me when I confronted them with difficult situations.  I invested a lot of time, effort, and energy into getting good at this, and it was a skill in high demand.  There was nothing about what I did that was unique to me.  I knew that I could teach others to do it just as effectively as I can.  All I needed to do was put what I learned into a system that others can follow, and Critical Confidence was born.