Self-sufficiency is most valuable when it gives you better choices.

The real return on being able to do things yourself is not the money or the pride, it is the range of options it puts in front of you. You can decline the bad offer, leave the situation, take the risk, wait for something better. Capability converts directly into the ability to choose.

When you are deciding what to learn or build next, ask which choices it would open. That question sorts skills better than interest alone does, and it points you toward the ones that will still be paying you back years from now.