It wasn't so much what he said as what I saw him do - him and my mom did nearly everything on the new house - ran electric, put in tile, wallpapered, did the ceiling, built the deck, poured concrete for the garage, stood up the garage rafters. He took the engine out of the car and fixed it. Seeing them do all of that gave me confidence that if I applied myself to pretty much anything I could figure it out.
In life, as in euchre, always make trump (that is, take lots of small risks).
For those not familiar, making trump is the first phase of playing a hand of euchre. It's the main way to score points, but it comes with a risk of losing even more points. But in practice, if you make trump every chance you have (instead of passing to the next player, the other option) your wins will more than make up for your losses.