Yep, that is the trick. I can't really say what put the want to do better into me, for some reason I just did and all those I went to school with or worked with who don't want to do better I don't understand why not either. My wife has a college degree in psychology and she still doesn't either.
I think it is possible for an adult to intercede. Looking back in history before schools were a classrom with a teacher who follows a government mandated lesson plan you usually had one on one teaching where you worked hard to prove yourself to someone who would become your mentor and work as their assistant for years to strive to become as great or greater than them. As we move to a classroom environment the quality of the education goes down I think because you don't get to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the point is to make it through the class day in and day out and get a piece of paper, where is the motivation in that?