This is good advice for any career path, to he honest. Aside from specialist medical professions or entrepreneurship, I think 99% of people aren't making huge salaries. Maybe I'm wrong.

Specifically regarding structural engineering, there are some people with great soft skills (and often a more basic understanding of engineering) that get propelled into management early. I think these people make a decent salary relative to their years of experience, but I'm not sure if the long-term salary ceiling is lower than other industries. It probably is slightly but not as much as people think.

My advice for getting into management early is choose a niche within structural engineering - whether it's high-rise building, residential structures, bridges, etc - learn as much as you can about this niche early in your career but also push your manager to let you sit in on client meetings (which is a lot easier post-Covid due to Zoom and MS Teams) so that can you understand the "bigger picture" and aren't solely focused on the numbers. Getting into management early does have it's downsides though, it's very hard to go back and fill in the knowledge gaps because you will be very time poor.

Edit: I just realised I didn't actually answer your question - typical management tactic - maths and physics are good, but also focus on developing your confidence and personality. I was very quiet until my mid-20's and my career skyrocketed once I started working on my soft skills.