Is it possible to make money and remain honest?

Even though every person's logical mind is different, sometimes people think of someone's success as a linear process. They either have something, or they don't.

But those people probably figured out very unique ways, that work in their situation only. They have accomplished that because they were able to apply their logical mind to the problem, forced themselves to develop discipline, and apply their knowledge and skill to produce a physical result (a web page, an ebook, etc).

As their efforts began to pay off, they realized that if they did more of that, they would make more money. At this point, their focus was on "what made money in the past", and not "how to offer value to people".

Let me explain what I mean. Offering value, is writing genuine thoughts and helpful information and distributing it to others. "What made money in the pat", means... well, just that, I can't get any more literal than that.

So, unless we combine both:
1) Striving to create and send something to interested parties
2) Make money

We can't possibly be genuinely honest about running our business.

Writing an e-book with the desire to teach others what you know is an act of generosity.

Writing one e-book and focusing on driving more and more traffic to it is an act of pursuing self-interest.

When you make money do you feel that you are doing something good for others, and not only for yourself? What makes you think so?