He gave me some very sage advice that has stuck with me. He said that if you have an engineering degree, you can be successful in almost any field. But if you have some other degree, you can't be an engineer. I don't know if that had anything to do with me becoming the president and CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, but it did give me the courage to build on my engineering experience and pursue marketing, sales and management, and broader business opportunities my whole career. And I always found that my engineer's approach to problem solving served me well.
Engineers are good at building things.
I would suggest two areas in which you should build all your life. Build relationships and build community. I have found success comes through the relationships that you foster. Working with teams and pursuing dreams depends on relationships. Tend to that part of your skill set.