One reason I do not agree that to be successful learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present is that the knowledge of the past helps us to avoid its mistakes. For example, it is known from history that when someone promises to arrange a paradise on earth, then breaking into power, he usually arranges hell on earth. Therefore, citizens of the countries that have survived totalitarian regimes are very suspicious of radically populist politicians and do not allow them to take power.
Another reason I do not agree that to be successful learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present is that the knowledge of the past helps us to predict the future. For example, the governments often try to hide an approaching economic crisis with assurances that everything is fine. So if the government of your country suddenly started to promise strenuously that the savings of the citizens invested in government securities will not suffer - this may be a clear sign of the crisis.
In addition to predict the future, a final reason I do not agree that to be successful learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present is that the knowledge of the past can help us to save money. Continuing the previous example, if you realised that the crisis is looming you can wisely decide not to invest your savings in government papers.

I believe that those ones who think that to be successful learning about the past has no value for those of us living in the present are wrong, because learning about the past provides us with the understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the human behavior and relationships in all times. For example, Yegor Gaidar's reforms in Russia would not have been successful if Gaidar had not learnt the past. This example shows how learning about the past has made Russia a great country. Also, I think that learning about the past has great value to be successful because knowing many biographies of both good and bad historic figures helps to formulate an objective understanding of what a successful person is. For example, Gaidar was deeply interested in the works of Marx, Engels, Adam Smith, and etc. So you can see how immensely the knowing of great historic personalities helped the Russian economist and politician to successfully perform as reformer.