by Donald Thompson — December 30, 2020 . Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur and investor Donald Thompson is a regular contributor to WRAL TechWire. His columns appear on Wednesdays. RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – Earlier this year, I wrote a white paper exploring The 5 Key Pillars of Next Generation Leadership. In these final days of 2020, as I’m solidifying what I want from next year and how I plan to achieve it, I keep coming back to the third pillar: committing to continual learning. I often describe myself as a competitive learner and encourage others to be competitive learners as well. What I mean by that is not to compete against others but to think of learning as a sport — to drive yourself for continuous improvement, to seek out mentors and coaches who will help you grow and to embrace the fact that you can always get better.