„Friends with passion” as a model for the development of competences

Purpose: The main aim of the article is to analyze the conditions for pursuing professional passion in the context of professional success. An additional goal is to demonstrate that there are people among your loved ones who can be role models for pursuing your professional passion. Design/methodology/approach: The research presented in this article uses an analysis of literature in the area of professional competences. The research covered all first-year students of Management at the University of Szczecin. A research problem was posed: what is the importance of professional passion in professional success. 132 students described someone they knew who had achieved professional success. Findings: The research allowed us to draw some general conclusions. They show that professional success is facilitated by clearly defining interests and discovering passions. Passion can be realized mainly through two elements of competence: having knowledge and deepening it, as well as a broadly understood and developed personality in terms of: perseverance, patience, building good relationships, etc. Research limitations/implications: the research was conducted on a non-representative sample. It would be advisable to conduct quantitative research on a representative sample and in-depth qualitative research on the determinants of modeling career development on close relatives. Practical implications: students have people close to them who have achieved professional success by developing their passions and professional dreams. They have knowledge of how to achieve goals and implement ideas thanks to their work, persistence, consistency and relationships with others. They are also aware of the costs of pursuing their passion, which is very important in their professional and non-professional life. Originality/value: showing that an important factor in professional development is having a professional passion. Such passion is also possessed by close people, friends, family and they can therefore be role models in pursuing their own passion, but also be career advisors.