I am a 47-year-old disabled male with more than 20 years in the banking/customer service area, 17 years as a collector. I want to stay in a field that deals with people in a more positive light. Suggestions are welcome. I left my last job because it lacked professionalism. What's more important — money or happiness?
If you happen to be in the small minority of people for whom money brings happiness, then you can have both! If you're like most of us, then you know that finding happiness in your work is essential, and most of us need more than a large paycheck to do that.
While not usually big fans of the new brand of "reality" shows, we think there is something to be learned from last week's episode of The Apprentice. The premise of the show is for people to compete for an executive job with Donald Trump. Two teams are formed and given tasks each week; the team that performs the task best wins, while one person from the losing team gets fired. Last week's task was to select an emerging artist and sell his or her work in a one-night opening gallery show. One team selected an artist whose work they liked and the other team selected an artist whose work they didn't like, but thought a higher price point (about $4,000 per piece) would make them winners. As you can guess, if you didn't see the show, the team who selected the artist they liked won by a huge margin ($13,000-plus to $900). The lesson, of course, is that if you don't love (or at least like) what you are doing, you won't find success at it.
Since you already left one job because of what you considered to be a lack of professionalism, it seems clear that you aren't motivated by money alone. It sounds like you have a good track record in your career with 20-plus years of working. Since most jobs deal with people in one fashion or another, and because what you consider "in a more positive light" is so very subjective, you'll need to narrow down your search more by identifying the skills you have and want to use and the kind of job target(s) you like.
Make a list of the transferable skills you can take to another arena so you can talk with others clearly and succinctly about what you can do. Spend some time researching what new job target(s) — title of job and field/industry — are interesting to you. Make a list of the jobs you've seen or heard of that appeal to you. Try to talk to people who are doing those jobs to find out the reality! Once you have done these things, we think you will be in a better position to find just the kind of job you want.