When we educate ourselves, we learn new things that we were previously unaware of. This gives us the ability to make better decisions, come up with more evolved and intelligent thoughts, improve the lives of ourselves and those around us, and thus makes us more valuable people overall.
This, in turn, leads to more options. The more valuable of a person you are, the more people will want to be around you, the more they will want to work with you, the more they introduce you to others who need your help or can help you, and the more doors and opportunities open in your life.
This high level of options in life gives you the freedom to choose from many different paths, and so you do not necessarily need anyone or anything to be happy or successful. And that freedom, my friend, is power. Because that freedom allows you to have the power to speak your mind, the power to be who you truly are, the power to not accept second class behavior from anyone, and the power to do whatever makes you happy. That is why knowledge is so important.
If you read a book written by a genius in an area you are passionate about, you will absorb so many things that have the potential to dramatically improve your life.
The best part about knowledge is that unlike fancy toys, or stocks, or money, knowledge becomes part of who you are. Your car can break down at any moment. The stocks you own can plummet at any time. Hyperinflation can render all of your money useless within the blink of an eye (if you don’t believe this is possible, do some research and give yourself some knowledge about what happened in prosperous nations such as Germany and Russia during the course of history; no one is fully immune).
But no matter what happens in your life, knowledge is something that nobody can ever take away from you.