Sella factor: Our job is to prepare the next generation to do better than we did. The shift in the education process has really handicapped our current generation of 20 to 25 year olds, he says. Your goal when learning and looking for a mentor should be to learn how to think - not what to think. If you are constantly looking for validation from someone up the an, you're not actually becoming successful. All you are is a link in a chain; that's not what you want to be.