Or both parents. You could learn it later in life, cruising or some other change, as Dan did.

I always wonder in the field of building, why some people are more inclined to do much of what Dan mentions. We used(good friends I worked with) to have talks about new people(they unaware), their background, education, their family life, and how they would pan out on a building project or design.

We never could find good commonalities. For instance, a guy who climbed Mt Everest, was always shaky off the ground. He wasn't rare, there's something in people that incline them to different things. But we did see something in parents that were, flexible in life perhaps? There's something there.

Back to my Dad, he instilled the bulk of this stuff for me(and a mom is just as likely). He was fearless to do what is almost outrageous today. As I got older, it occurred to me, he wasn't good at all of it,...(doesn't every child go through that with a dad?). That never stopped him though, and he worked in an office environment most his life(he worked for me when he retired )

I think I realize too late after he's gone, it was the idea you could do, something, that was most valuable. The rest, how well you do, is not innate, but learned. So as Dan posts, you can learn later, but for many, something is in there to start.

My wife always gets after me with our children, "Show him/her how to build, how to fix the boat", I say, "nah, I just want them to see that they can, they'll fill in the rest". So I figure, my work is done.