You raise some valid points here.
The way that would happen would be if I gained a whole lot of followers, my followers got richer, or I got richer.
I feel reaching your goal has more to do with the type of followers rather than the number. Imagine a scenario where the majority of your followers find what you have to say interesting, and vice versa. They upvote your posts and you upvote theirs. They grow, you grow!
Here I am only stressing on the fact that it is important to ultimately end up with followers with the same interests as ours.
All the best!