wealth education?

a random advertisement came in the mail today, announcing a conference on how to get rich and stay rich. that made a weird feeling grow in my gut. then as i looked at the roster of workshop speakers and read their titles, that feeling intensified. some of the speakers' titles were things like "wealth educator," "wealth trainer," "international wealth speaker." I guess even though on some level i have heard about this kind of stuff before, seeing it up close in advertisement really hit me, in a strange way- people have actually made careers out of teaching people how to become rich.

i don't know why that bothered me so much, but it did. of all the things to make your living doing, of all the things one could travel the world and talk to people about, of all the issues plaguing the world and ways one could help others better their lives, there are people whose sole passion in life is to "grow rich" and to host workshops teaching others how to do the same. wow.

let me clarify, that i have no problem with wealth, generally speaking. if you have been educated, found yourself a trade, built a business and are now enjoying the success of it, i say, "sincere congrats to you!" really, i do. but for some reason, the thought of someone's career being simply "getting rich" or teaching someone to get rich...i don't know, that bothers me. it seem so shallow, so greedy. to each his own, i know. but still, i guess for me, when i die, i want to leave behind a meaningful work in the world. i want to go out knowing that i have enriched a life, not just made a life rich. there is a difference. a huge difference. acquiring wealth of soul, of knowledge, of love, of service to others fills me up so much more than acquiring wealth of materials and dollars. i can't imagine living my life constantly working and diving into project after project, investment after investment, buying and selling property after property, all for the purpose of building wealth.

when i look at life as a whole, all that comes with it, all that you can experience and really absorb out of life, building wealth just doesn't seem that important to me. once you "build" it...then what?