Prediction of professional success of an individual on the basis of measurement of his abilities often happens to be unsatisfactory, first of all, in the domain of social professions. «Resources» is the notion which integrates individual’s own characteristics as well as states and conditions of environment including characteristics of other people which are potentially accessible for an individual. Abilities as «functional systems» and as a kind of subject’s resources (exclusively subject’s own characteristics or internal resources) manifest themselves most effectively in an artificial environment (diagnostics, training etc.). The notion «resources» is naturally connected with an activity which takes place in real environment and reflects an ecological approach towards success. Historically first paradigm which explains success by abilities, i.e. subject’s characteristics, can have «subject’s relations» etc. as a complimentary factors. It is demonstrated by representative empirical data that important determinants of judo players efficiency are the correspondence between psychophysiological characteristics of a coach and a sportsman (strength of excitation in the nervous system), the correspondence between the coach’s and the sportsman’s styles of fighting, the correspondence between the couch’s tutorial concept (his attitudes towards different fighting styles and their efficiency, preferences for various methods of training and the like) with the sportsman’s individuality. At the same time a wider and more positive effect is provided by «weak» coaches’ styles of work. The pupils of «weak» coaches by typology are more effective in all age groups but fighters who are «weak» in terms of strength of their nervous system achieve success more often. Determinants of a successful career of civil servants are constituents of social microenvironment which reflect subject’s social relations, such as authority and role of parents (especially father), friends, other men, immediate superiors, role of circumstances.